Ecological Golf Course Design
"Bio-Islands" are planned landscapes that use natural guilds of plants to enhance wildlife habitat. Fish, insects, birds and deer thrive in the bio-islands we design in the spaces between golf course fairways, as natural, self-regulating habitats. Healthy communities of birds and fish will help to control insects, eliminating need for chemical controls.
Creating BioIslands for Ecological Golf Courses, Parks and Commons
Eco Systems Design offers design, consultation, management plans and employee training in the creation and maintenance of BioIslands - planned natural landscapes that provide constructed habitat for wildlife. Our designs are informed by our ten years of experience with the Roaring Fork Club in Basalt, Colorado.
At Eco Systems Design, we can help you achieve your project's environmental goals by:
At Eco Systems Design, we can help you achieve your project's environmental goals by:
- Designing a network of BioIslands (pockets of ecologically diverse landscape ecosystem which reduces the need for herbicides and pesticides) throughout the parks, commons, golf courses and residential areas.
- Using plants that are mostly native to your bio-region.
- Designing a comprehensive Integrated Pest Management program for your landscape.
- Creating an environmentally-friendly Best Practices Management operations manual.
- Training management staff to employ organic and chemical maintenance systems in a complementary way.
- Training maintenance staff in the hands-on techniques of an organic program.
- Helping you to take steps to achieve Audubon certification.
The BioIsland Concept
"BioIslands" are biocide-free, intentionally designed landscapes that are aesthetically pleasing, while also providing shelter, food and habitat for myriad beneficial insects, frogs and small animals. In turn, wildlife feed on pests, thereby reducing the need for pesticides throughout the area. Additionally, BioIslands reduce overall landscape water consumption, prevent and control erosion, and improve soil fertility.
"BioIslands" are biocide-free, intentionally designed landscapes that are aesthetically pleasing, while also providing shelter, food and habitat for myriad beneficial insects, frogs and small animals. In turn, wildlife feed on pests, thereby reducing the need for pesticides throughout the area. Additionally, BioIslands reduce overall landscape water consumption, prevent and control erosion, and improve soil fertility.
In natural ecosystems marked by species diversity and interdependence, a continuously evolving balance enables the system as a whole to remain healthy. However, in constructed ecosystems such as farms and golf courses, this harmony is disturbed and the systems become out-of-balance. Insect pests and invasive weeds proliferate, causing many problems. Our industrial-age solution has been to "control" these problems with chemicals. Unfortunately, chemicals create new problems that are even bigger and more complex. BioIslands, like age-old hedgerows, help to naturally control these pest and weed problems.
These "Islands" of relatively undisturbed landscape are designed to attract beneficial insect and animal species; control pest insects on turf grass and throughout development; reduce overall water consumption and the need for toxic chemicals; increase fertility and healthy biological activity in soils, and add aesthetic value to golf courses. BioIslands are strategically places, sustainable, organic habitats that provide numerous benefits without interfering with the function of public parks and commons or the playability of golf courses.
These "Islands" of relatively undisturbed landscape are designed to attract beneficial insect and animal species; control pest insects on turf grass and throughout development; reduce overall water consumption and the need for toxic chemicals; increase fertility and healthy biological activity in soils, and add aesthetic value to golf courses. BioIslands are strategically places, sustainable, organic habitats that provide numerous benefits without interfering with the function of public parks and commons or the playability of golf courses.
In developing a BioIsland, wildflowers, shrubs and trees are planted which again, attract hungry, beneficial wildlife. These beneficial species, in turn, reduce the need for pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in numerous ways. For example, several species of safe, miniature wasps attack the eggs of the cutworm moth and twenty other caterpillar pests; dragon flies, bats, swallows, and gambusia fish control mosquitoes; select weevils eat thistles; tiny mycorrhiza in the soil attack soil pathogens. At the same time, nitrogen-fixing plants naturally fertilize neighboring plants. The BioIsland philosophy is the use organic alternatives first, and chemicals only as a last resort.
Benefits of Environmentally Friendly Golf Course Design:
- Improved public relations. Environmentally friendly golf courses and parks have significant public relations advantages, such as providing market differentiation among the new generation of environmentally conscious golfers. The Roaring Fork Club received a large amount of publicity for the environmental quality of their course. Their fairways and greens are located on both sides of a gold-medal trout stream, which is continuously monitored for water quality. Home buyers and the surrounding community love it too.
- Lower long term costs. Overall costs are approximately the same in the short term, but much lower in the long term as the BioIslands mature.
- Enhanced beauty. One of the most common comments about the BioIslands at the Roaring Fork Club is how beautiful they are. Many people appreciate the natural look and feel of a golf course teeming with wildlife.
- Reduced liability. Liability is an area of increasing concern for golf course owners, An employee accidentally exposed to a large dose of chemicals or repeatedly exposed to many smaller doses could become sick, and blame the owners of the golf course; a golfer entering a toxic area too soon after chemical applications could become ill and sue the golf course; informed environmental activists could sue for contamination of streams or groundwater. By using an organic maintenance program, vulnerability to lawsuits is significantly reduced.
- Water conservation. All water conservation strategies will help to slow the depletion of this precious resource, as well as to provide a buffer of protection should drought conditions become a problem. BioIslands require much less water to maintain than traditional landscaping. As the BioIslands mature, their extensive root systems and biologically rich soils act as underground reservoirs, storing water that would normally be lost as run-off. They also serve as sponges, or buffer zones, during flood conditions.
- Community education. A high-profile, well-promoted, environmentally-friendly project of this size can have a positive ripple effect in the community. An educational outreach program for local schools becomes a natural extension of the Audubon certification requirements.
- Increased resiliency. BioIslands and edible landscaping can help to offset the potential problems of adverse climate change. By selecting the hardiest plants and placing them in self-reliant plant communities, building healthier soils that support biological activity, using mulches or living ground covers to protect soils and conserve water, and designing using plant diversity we can help provide strength and resiliency to the landscape and turf to ride out difficult weather events. Such a landscape will also be highly resistant to disease outbreaks.