Golf courses, despite occupying large green spaces, are not necessarily good for the environment. Land is often cleared to make way for a fairway and maintaining the pristine turf often requires a lot of water, regular mowing and the spraying of fertilizers and pesticides – none of which is good for biodiversity....
My local muni used to have 3 courses. They closed 1 in 2019 and have left it open to the public as a park with no maintenance going into the greens. There are 5 miles of cart paths, now trails, and it connects to an adjacent park with an additional 2 miles of trails. The golf course is barely recognizable and it has been really cool to see it slowly getting reclaimed by nature. There are a significantly larger amount of birds, small mammals, and deer seen there than even just two years ago. I rarely take pictures there but here are a couple that do a decent job at showing how little it looks like a golf course anymore. Both pictures were taken this year.
Abandoned golf courses are being reclaimed by nature (www.cnn.com)
Golf courses, despite occupying large green spaces, are not necessarily good for the environment. Land is often cleared to make way for a fairway and maintaining the pristine turf often requires a lot of water, regular mowing and the spraying of fertilizers and pesticides – none of which is good for biodiversity....