Can golf courses be sustainable? Some in the suburbs are trying by conserving water and more

While golf courses are often seen as harmful for the environment because they require a lot of water and chemicals and lack biodiversity, many local courses are on a greener path.

In Wheaton, Arrowhead Golf Course has houses for bats, bluebirds and ducks. In Hoffman Estates, the course at Bridges of Poplar Creek has a milkweed garden from which staff members harvest seeds each year. Both courses have upped their amounts of natural “no mow” areas and built buffers of native plants around their waterways.

Through a sustainability certification program run by environmental nonprofit Audubon International Certification, the courses are two of 2,000 worldwide working to meet goals in five areas: water conservation, water quality, pesticide reduction, habitat creation and public education.

“In this day and age where we stand right now, I think we all understand that we as human beings have an impact on the planet. There's no question about it. It's been documented, well-documented ...,” said Frank LaVardera, Audubon's director of environmental programs for golf. “If you're going to have a golf course, why not implement sustainable practices to have your golf course have the least impact it can have on the environment, and in some instances actually be positive in terms of the environment? That's really the heart of the program.”

Courses begin with an internal site assessment in which they create an environmental plan. Once a course reaches the guidelines for the five components — an extensive process that often requires funding and can take anywhere from six months to three years, depending on the course — an Audubon inspector comes out for a certification site visit.

To keep certification, courses must complete a recertification process every three years, with on-site visits from Audubon every six years.

The program, the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf, began in 1987 with initial funding from the United States Golf Association. Financial support now comes from sponsorships and fees from program members, about half of which are fully certified.

Arrowhead Golf Club is one of 38 certified members in Illinois, achieving the status in September 2020.

“It's not just about the game of golf. For me personally, it's about being outside in the early morning or the late afternoon and just being a part of nature,” said Justin Kirtland, the golf course superintendent at Arrowhead Golf Club. “On a day-to-day basis, the amount of wildlife that crosses over the property and even lives on the property is amazing.”

Though golf courses are largely composed of turf grass, which is a foreign plant that has essentially zero ecological value, Arrowhead encompasses 220 acres and is completely surrounded by DuPage Forest Preserve District land. By incorporating more native plants and natural areas throughout the course, the club provides habitat while lowering its water and pesticide use.

As part of the public education component, the club hosted a bioblitz in 2019. The event was an informal biological census in which golfers filled out sheets with the different types of wildlife they saw while playing. Between eagles, owls, snakes, turtles, mink, sandhill cranes and more, visitors spotted more than 50 different species.

“Can golf courses be sustainable? That's a word that everyone wants to measure, and that's what a lot of golf courses do,” Kirtland said. “I'm not going to speak for everyone, but we measure everything we do.

“For example, I am measuring how much water I need to put out on a daily basis, if needed. I'm not watering to keep it green; I'm trying to create good plant conditions,” he said. “I'm also a steward of being sustainable. If the plant doesn't need that water, I'm not going to give it to it.”

The staff is also seeking more drought-tolerant grass species to replace the grasses that have been on the property for nearly 100 years. With most of Illinois currently in a drought — and with Cook and DuPage counties in a severe drought — Kirtland said he's had to let some of the grass go brown.

“The irrigation system we have was never designed to carry us through a drought for this long of a period of time, because we live in Illinois. It just wouldn't be realistic,” he said. “We're seeing brown grass in the rough, which is OK. It is what it is, and golfers accept that. They understand it's a part of the game. They understand it's not going to be like Augusta National on TV every day, and that we don't have that resource all the time.”

At Bridges of Poplar Creek, the golf course is still on the path to certification. Since joining the program, the course has converted more than 30 acres to unmaintained, natural areas, said Dustin Hugen, the director of parks, planning and maintenance for the Hoffman Estates Park District.

“One of the biggest things for us was how can we reduce the amount of water that we're using on the golf course? How can we reduce the amount of herbicides that we're using on the golf course? And how can we encourage other activities at the golf course, i.e. wildlife?” Hugen said.

The course has also implemented a 15- to 20-foot buffer of native plants — perennial grasses and wildflowers — around its pond and creek shorelines to filter out pollutants and protect water quality.

Through another partnership between Audubon International and Environmental Defense Fund called Monarchs in the Rough, Bridges of Poplar Creek received free milkweed and local wildflower seed mix in exchange for developing at least one acre of pollinator habitat.

“It's something that we believe in, and we're trying to do it where we can,” Hugen said. “Golf courses are hard, because the main purpose of the course is for the golfers to play golf. But what we've done is we've taken areas that are out of play, that are still on property, and turned those into native areas.”

Hugen added that once the heat of the golf season passes, the course will continue its path to certification in the fall.

“But wouldn't it be better for golf course property to be undeveloped and forested?” is a question LaVardera gets often.

“I'm not trying to tell anybody that a golf course is better than undeveloped land, but how it works in this country is that everybody owns land pretty much, and they have the right to develop that property. I'd rather have a golf course out there than a shopping center, or 300 homes being built on a piece of property,” he said. “I think a golf course has a lot less impact than those sorts of land uses.”

• Jenny Whidden is a climate change and environment writer working with the Daily Herald through a partnership with Report For America supported by The Nature Conservancy. To help support her work with a tax-deductible donation, see dailyherald.com/rfa.