In a few weeks, Henry Tonigan will set aside his golf clubs and pick up the binoculars to scan the autumn skies for migrating birds. “I’ve been an Audubon member (most of) my life,” Tonigan said. “Last year I counted 93 species.”
Some of Tonigan’s best birdwatching is done in the woods and prairie around his home, which faces the 18th fairway at the Biltmore Country Club in North Barrington. A 33-year member of the private club and an avid golfer, Tonigan said: “It’s a marvelous old course. We have a wide variety of birds here.” Geese, herons, warblers, great horned owls, ospreys, mute swans, hawks, purple martins, bluebirds and swallows are just a few of the species on the grounds from spring through fall.
Built in 1926 on an ancient peat bog, Biltmore’s 130-acre, 18-hole course features diverse habitats that include meadows, wetlands, a creek and hardwood forests where some of the oaks are more than 300 years old.
It is one of 132 golf courses in Illinois that act as wildlife sanctuaries in a program sponsored by Audubon International, a not-for-profit environmental organization headquartered in Selkirk, N.Y. There are several others in the northwest suburbs, including Bartlett Hills Golf Course in Bartlett.
Other courses in the northwest suburbs that are participating — but not yet certified — om the program are Arboretum Golf Club, Buffalo Grove; Barrington Hills Country Club, Barrington; Buffalo Grove Golf Club, Buffalo Grove; Chalet Hills Golf Club, Cary; Spartan Meadows Golf Course, Elgin; Pinecrest Golf & Country Club, Huntley; Twin Orchard Country Club, Long Grove; Royal Melbourne Country Club, Long Grove; Hillcrest Country Club, Long Grove; Inverness Golf Club, Palatine; Mt. Prospect Golf Course, Mt. Prospect; Wynstone Golf Club, North Barrington; and Marengo Ridge Golf Club, Marengo.
“Golf is becoming more of a visual game,” said Biltmore’s golf course superintendent Brian Thomson of West Chicago. “Instead of strictly playing, golfers like to see things other than green grass. More courses are planting flowers, and it helps bring nature to (the golfers).”
Golf courses taking part in the Audubon program must complete components that address environmental planning, wildlife and habitat management, public involvement, integrated pest management, water conservation and water quality management. The designation recognizes golf courses as important open spaces and credits them for taking an active role in environmentally responsible projects.
“It seems like the new wave of golf courses is going to be more natural. Manicuring the out-of-play areas is going to be a thing of the past,” said Don Ferreri, chairman of the environmental committee of the 270-member Midwest Association of Golf Course Superintendents and superintendent of Seven Bridges Golf Course in Woodridge. “A number of courses have put in nature trails or small arboretum-type settings. I think it’s real positive with golfers.”
At many Chicago-area golf courses, lawn mowers are no longer being used in the grassy woods and natural areas outside the fairways, according to Tom Voigt, extension turf grass specialist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“Handled properly, these unmowed areas increase wildlife habitat, save money on labor, equipment and chemicals and enhance the golf experience. The golfers, the environment and wildlife all benefit,” Voigt said.
“I’ve golfed all over the country,” Tonigan said, “and I’d say it’s a trend. I think there’s much more of an awareness of the needs of wild things.”
Right now, the Biltmore club is compiling data to be submitted to Audubon International when the course applies for certification, which it plans to do next year. In Illinois, 13 courses have received certification; Biltmore would be the first in the northwest suburbs.
The certification process, which can take up to three years, is designed to recognize and support superintendents or other land managers who have worked to ensure a high degree of environmental quality on the golf course. Once a golf course becomes a certified cooperative sanctuary, Audubon seeks regional, national and international recognition for the course to highlight its environmental conservation efforts.
The courses and their superintendents must do environmental planning (determining what ecosystems are present and ways to protect and enhance them); study the wildlife and habitats and again create/enhance these habitats (by erecting nesting boxes or leaving dead trees standing, for example); monitor the water quality and determine if chemicals are present and find ways to reduce them; conserve water (by introducing native prairie flowers that require less irrigation); and educate the members and the public (by posting signs on natural trails and having special presentations).
Although golf courses in the past have been targeted as environmentally unfriendly for guzzling water and using chemicals, Ferreri said that superintendents have quietly practiced sound conservation management for many years.
“We’ve been doing the right things all along, but it’s time we document and show our efforts. We’re trying to educate our members and the public about environmental awareness and conservation,” Ferreri said.
At Biltmore, dead trees that are not a danger to golfers are left to stand, eventually providing homes to woodpeckers, raccoons and other critters. Where the grass was once cut short under Biltmore’s tall oaks, colorful wildflowers and native grasses now carpet the forest floor. Next to a pond, a recently restored 3-acre prairie is filled with colorful native plants that attract dragonflies, butterflies and songbirds.
Thomson recently installed 20 bird, bat and butterfly houses to enhance the course’s habitat. The birds and bats help reduce the insect population, each eating as many as 2,000 or more a day, Thomson explained.
“The course provides a great habitat (for many species),” said Tonigan, who monitors activity in the nesting boxes.
In addition to monitoring the creek’s water quality, Thomson has planted native grasses on the banks to prevent erosion and slow the leaching of fertilizer or pesticide into the waterway. “They’re a filtering mechanism for cleaning the water as it flows through the course,” Thomson said. He estimates that about 20 hours a week and several gallons of gasoline are saved by not having to mow up to the creek.
According to Thomson, Biltmore spends about $10,000 on annuals, perennials and seeds and $4,000 on new trees each year.
“We have some of the most committed and absolutely groundbreaking superintendents,” said Mary Colleen Liburdi, director of communications for Audubon International. “For them to get involved and go through the certification process, which is quite rigorous, is a positive accomplishment.”
Biltmore began its restoration process when Thomson came on board three years ago. Thomson had worked for nature centers and “always had a strong interest in conservation,” he said.
“I think (the sanctuary program) helps the members to become aware of the environment. Some of them have taken the ideas (from the prairie restoration) and are doing the same thing at their houses,” Thomson said.
His wife, horticulturist Karen Thomson, designed several planting areas, including a 200-foot-long hill facing the clubhouse. “It used to be called `Dandelion Hill.’ The new design uses a lot of native species,” Karen Thomson said. Rudbeckia, monarda, purple coneflower, phlox, coral bells, daylilies and ornamental grasses provide drifts of color, seeds for birds and nectar for bees and butterflies.
“Everybody’s been pleased,” she said. “(The grounds) have really changed with all the flowers. The natural areas and the beautification are a big factor as to why some members have joined.”
At the 148-acre Bartlett Hills Golf Course, deer, fox, coyote, great horned owls and red squirrels make their home. Opened in 1924, the 18-hole public course has participated in the Audubon sanctuary program since 1993.
“The golf course is a perfect place to establish homes for wildlife, especially with all the building going on (in the suburbs),” said Bartlett Hills’ golf course superintendent Kevin DeRoo of Elgin. “It’s a great thing (for golfers) to see deer or coyotes out here.”
During his eight-year tenure, DeRoo has planted more than 900 trees and shrubs on the grounds with a budget of about $3,000 per year. “We try to stick to native varieties (using) oaks and black walnuts in the hardwood (forest),” he said. Elsewhere, DeRoo has planted maples, lindens and honey locusts.
“I like taking something and making improvements, whether it’s building a tee or creating wildlife habitat,” DeRoo said.
DeRoo has installed nesting boxes for purple martins, bluebirds and woodducks and is considering adding bat houses.
DeRoo heard about the Audubon program from other superintendents. “We were already doing things to promote natural habitats and wildlife on the course. The Audubon program helped us take that a step further,” DeRoo said.
“It was a matter of the right thing to do,” he said. “It seemed like a really good program to initiate public awareness and good public relations,” he said.
About 10 acres of closely cropped lawn at Bartlett Hills have been taken “out of play”; these areas outside the fairways used to be mowed but now are left to become “the rough,” with taller grasses and wildflowers taking the place of a sheared lawn. The areas require less mowing, watering and fertilizer and pesticide applications.
Although fewer chemicals now are applied in general to golf course turf than a decade ago, the fairways look healthy and green.
“Superintendents are more aware of what’s going on. The (fertilizer and pesticide) products we’re using are safer than before,” DeRoo said. “We concentrate more on the greens (and) the tees that are under different stresses and pressure.”
Through a study funded by the Midwest Association of Golf Course Superintendents, Voigt is researching more than 50 native plants added at the Cantigny Golf Course in Wheaton. “There are a lot of questions and not a lot of answers as to what (native) plants do well and what looks good,” Voigt said. He added that the challenge is “to create a setting where these native plants provide wildlife habitat and provide an attractive setting in which to play golf.”
In a prairie restoration study using native plants at Olympia Fields Country Club in that southern suburb, one of Voigt’s plots contains sand bluestem, vanilla grass, nodding wild onions, prairie dock and rattlesnake master.
The prairie plants are “competing with (plants in) existing fields,” he said. “Some are doing just fine, while others are not. We’re looking for suitability to the sites, the habitat and the climate as well as how to combine the different species.”
Voigt will examine how well the plants do during at least one more growing season before writing and publishing a booklet of recommended plants for the natural areas of Midwest golf courses. Directing efforts to establish native plants “can be labor saving,” Voigt said. “There’s savings in not buying chemicals (to treat insects or weeds) or having to mow compared to other areas.”
DeRoo is considering adding some native Illinois prairie grasses to his plantings. “Experimentation is what it’s all about,” DeRoo explained. “We’re all trying to re-establish native areas, and we have to see what’s acceptable to golfers.”
Of the wildflower planting, DeRoo said, “We’ve had phenomenal positive feedback. Golfers like it, and it benefits wildlife as well.”
Tonigan has taken note of comments made by fellow golfers. “Even hard-nosed golfers are really impressed,” Tonigan said. “People love it.”
