Leisure World has signed on to an important environmental management program to protect our 18-hole golf course.
Scott Wagner, director of golf operations, registered the golf course with International Audubon’s Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf (ACSP). The initiative is an environmental education and certificate program designed to help fairways conserve resources and protect natural plantings and wildlife habitats.
More than 2,300 golf courses worldwide are participating in the program. According to Audubon International, ACSP helps each golf course assess its site, evaluate its environmental resources and any potential liabilities, and then develop a plan to fit its unique setting, goals, staff, budget and timeline.
To improve the performance of our golf course, Wagner says his team is “taking stock of the things we’re doing on the golf course, and how we’re doing them.”
Leisure World has already met its first benchmark and is ACSP certified in environmental planning. The golf course maintenance staff has modified some of its operations to raise standards. New methods such as washing mowing equipment with compressed air blowers have helped the golf course conserve water and meet additional ACSP requirements.
The golf course is working to fulfill five other program components, including wildlife and habitat management, chemical use reduction and safety, water conservation, water quality management, and outreach and education.
Wagner says the new environmental measures will not adversely affect the experience of golfers, and likely will improve it. Visible enhancements to the golf course will include flowers and other plantings.
Meanwhile, squirrels, deer, ducks, geese, rabbits, raccoons, foxes and numerous bird species are often spotted along the golf cart paths, wooded areas and creeks that course through the fairways. Wildlife species that make their habitat among the greens will remain undisturbed.
It will take three to five years to fully implement the ACSP program.