Eaton Golf Club are Environmental Winners
Eaton Golf Club has just been nominated winner for the North of England of the BIGGA Golf Environment Competition for 2007. The British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association is the leading European organisation looking after all aspects of golf course management.
The club was started in 1920 as a 9-hole course in the grounds of Eaton Hall, the Duke of Westminster's Estate. In 1963 it was extended to 18 holes and then, at the Duke's request, relocated to its present site in Waverton in 1993.
The judges praised the club for having converted 70 hectares of relatively sterile farmland into a diverse range of habitats supporting a vast number of different species of wildlife. Particular mention was made of the large areas of rough grassland providing habitat for insects and small mammals, the ponds and wetlands, where newts, dragonflies and profuse birdlife can be seen, and hedgerows, woodlands and copses, where in total some 5000 trees and bushes have been planted. Mention was made of the barn owl boxes, one of which has recently been home to a family with two chicks.
The club previously entered the competition in 2004 and at that time were “highly recommended”. Since then some improvements in techniques of waste disposal and wash-water treatment have been made, so that it is now fully compliant with current regulations. The club was also commended for adopting the principles of “sustainable golf course management”, whereby applications of water, fertilisers, fungicides and pesticides are kept to a minimum.
The process of environmental development does not stop here. An association with Cheshire Wildlife Trust has recently been set up, which it is hoped will lead to further improvements in the range of flora and fauna to be seen on the course. |
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GOLF ENVIRONMENT COMPETITION Present: Richard Stuttard - STRI Rupert Thorp - Chairman of the Environmental Working Group
Eaton Golf Club has only been situated in its present location for the last fourteen years and as such is still an establishing golf course. Despite this the course does exude an air of maturity well beyond its years. The club have produced their own Management Plan which is of an excellent standard and has guided the club over the past few years, in terms of what projects should be carried out, when and how they should be done. This has led to a number of tree planting initiatives which have been carried out using best practice techniques. The selection is highly appropriate to the area and it was pleasing to note the sensitive way in which these copses had been positioned.
Rough grassland or ecology rough has been introduced around the course and the club has recently enlisted a local farmer with the task of removing all arisings from the rough and bailing them. This is an extremely good practice as removing arisings from long grasslands will reduce the nutrient status of the area, which will in turn allow the finer grasses to out compete the less desirable coarser species such as yorkshire fog. The rough grassland observed during my visit was still on the fairly coarse side, but it was clear to see that improvements have been made following the cut and collection techniques that have been employed. I would encourage the club to continue this activity as the results will only further improve. The position of these grasslands provides increased strategy on some of the holes however, I do feel that there is potential to allow even more areas to become deeper ecology rough. Ecology rough not only provides added strategy and definition to a hole, but also provides diversity in terms of the different grass species that are promoted and the wildflowers that flourish within it. Ecology rough also provides habitat for a wide variety of insect species as well as in some more out of play areas, habitat for ground nesting birds. According to best practice the rough grassland areas are scarified prior to cutting and I understand that the arisings from the scarification are sent off to a local composting centre. This is excellent practice and I would encourage the golf club in the future to consider setting up their own composting facility, as this can be an essential tool towards increasing the golf clubs sustainability.
There are a number of water features around the course, many of which have been recently created. These have generally been done in a very sensitive manner and in most cases require only minor amendments to make them into superb features. Some areas, where water retention is perhaps not as good as it might be have been considered for conversion to wetland areas and I would commend the club for their thoughts on this and would encourage them to pursue this as this would add further habitat, to increase the already vast number of species currently inhabiting the course at Eaton Golf Club. There are also a number of ditches running through the course many of which are looking superb as they have been left to nature, with minimal management to keep them in check. Some ditches that are in play have understandably received more management and we discussed on the day the potential to reduce this management somewhat on certain areas, should the correct equipment be acquired in the future.
There are several other measures that have been implemented at Eaton Golf Club that I feel are worthy of praise.
• The hedgerow planting that has been undertaken at the golf club is an extremely noteworthy project. Hedgerows have been in decline in the UK over the last fifty years or so with vast swathes being lost. With them goes valuable habitat for a variety of birds, insects and small mammals. Hedgerows are vital as they provide ecological corridors for organisms to pass safely from one habitat to anther. The hawthorn and blackthorn hedgerows in place at Eaton are a superb example of hedgerow maintenance.
• The provision of owl boxes at certain locations around the course has been a great initiative by the club and although they have not yet been used I feel that it will only be a matter of time before these are successfully implemented. The provision of the owl boxes also led to newspaper coverage and it is extremely positive that the club are communicating with the general public about what they are involved with. This leads me to the Monthly Eaton Outlook Magazine that is produced for all members and highlights all the ecological projects that have been carried out and also those that are planned for the future. When attempting to implement ecological measures on the golf course it is vital to communicate with everyone involved at the golf club, in order to ensure they understand the reasoning behind these measures as keeping people informed is by far the best way of keeping them on side.
• As we walked the course an area was pointed out to me where a ride had been created through an area of the woodland to create a view of the castle in the distance and I feel this has added to the aesthetics of the course and has been an imaginative and proactive measure.
• I understand that fungicide use is minimal due to the cultural practices, as is fertiliser use and I would commend the club for this.
• The sedimentation tanks put in place adjacent to the washdown facility together with the hydro-carbon collecting boom appear to be doing a superb job at cleaning up the waste water from machinery etc. Perhaps the only thing to took at in the future regarding water management would be the source which is I believe is currently mains. It may be prudent in future to perhaps consider the use of an on site irrigation lake. Overall Eaton Golf Club is a superb place to play golf particularly bearing in mind its relatively recent inception. The clubs commitment to ecological issues is outstanding and the enthusiasm by all involved was clear to see during my visit. There are a whole host of interesting and imaginative projects being undertaken and I look forward to revisiting the club in the future, to see how these are progressing. Due to the variety of projects undertaken, the wide array of habitats being conserved and promoted, the ever increasing species diversity present on the course and the clubs commitment to ecological issues, it is with great pleasure that I can announce Eaton Golf Club as the BIGGA Golf Environment Competitions Northern Area winner for 2007. Richard Stuttard Ecology Et Environment
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