What is a climate resilient golf course?
Langston Golf Course, in Washington, DC, faces an uncertain future with the threat of sea-level rise and flooding from extreme weather events.
Why is building climate resilience so important? According to Climate Central, shared via Washington Post’s Climate Coach newsletter, the United States endured 28(!) billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in 2023. Clearly this is an issue that doesn’t just affect the health and vitality of our national parks, but for the sake of this article that is what I will focus on.
Last week I attended a regional climate resiliency summit hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Region of National Parks Conservation Association, an independent organization that works to protect and preserve America’s national parks. The collection of attendees comprised national park staff and stakeholders from organizations that manage national parks like a ‘Friends of’ non-profit organization.
SUMMIT ATTENDEES IN BREAK OUT GROUPS DISCUSSING CLIMATE THREATS TO WASHINGTON DC’S NATIONAL PARKS.
The crux of the one-day summit was for all of us in the room to openly discuss how we as sustainability professionals and community engagement experts can actively build resiliency within our respective parks to mitigate the onslaught of issues driven by our rapidly warming climate.
One group exercise that got us all in the right frame of mind was discussing the things that worry us the most when thinking about DC’s parks and climate change. Here is the list my group came up with in just a few short minutes:
Sea-level rise
Stormwater runoff
Extreme weather events (rain, drought, heat)
Loss of institutional knowledge
Lack of resources to address current crises and prepare for future ones
Loss of biodiversity
Apathy and acceptance of defeat in climate battle
Insufficient legislative leadership and government inaction
Every single one of these issues can be addressed, either independently or together with partnerships and collaborations, by taking on several of the root causes of climate disasters, including: ending our reliance on fossil fuels to curb GHG emissions, ending the destruction and loss of natural habitats like the Amazon Rainforest, and empowering people and communities to take action, either by way of electing politicians that believe in climate change and take action to mitigate it, volunteering in communities to combat social and environmental injustices, or exercising our consumer spending power on brands and products that operate responsibly with the planet and people taking priority over profits.
So, what are some programs and initiatives that public green spaces, like municipal golf courses, can implement to build climate resiliency in their communities? Here are three areas the National Links Trust is focusing on to address the multitude of climate fears listed above.
Stormwater Management and Green Infrastructure
Flooding, erosion, and pollution are the biggest side effects of extreme rain events and they can have devastating impacts on communities. Golf courses can utilize aspects of the game’s design, like the addition of water hazards, to mitigate these effects. Constructing rain gardens and retention ponds on golf courses helps capture runoff during these events. Golf courses can also rehabilitate and revitalize native habitats like wetlands to build stormwater capacity during extreme weather events.
Here in Washington, DC, at Langston Golf Course, which resides along the banks of Kingman Lake and the Anacostia River, we are looking to take the stormwater runoff challenge head-on. Initial designs for the course’s renovation, which is expected to begin in a few years, features the daylighting, or uncovering, of 2,400 linear feet of a stream covered before the course was built, the restoration of another 2,200 linear feet of a second stream, which is currently a stormwater drain outfall that deposits pounds of trash and debris from the adjacent neighborhoods directly onto the golf course after severe rain events, and the addition of 8-10 acres of wetland habitat. All three of these sub-projects are part of a direct effort to collect stormwater from the neighboring communities, slow it down to mitigate erosion and sediment loss, and filter it through natural ecosystems to remove toxins, pollutants and pesticides before entering nearby waterways.
Renewable & Efficient Energy
One sure fire way to decrease the occurrence of climate disasters is to end our reliance on fossil fuels for energy and everyday items that are made of plastic. Government incentives and decreasing costs are making solar panels and EV charging stations considerably more affordable to install and can offer homeowners and businesses a source of passive income.
The rehabilitation of NLT’s three courses will see each facility become fully electrified with solar panels installed on major buildings and infrastructure and the addition of EV charging stations in each parking lot, along with the installation of energy efficient lighting and HVAC systems.
THE USE OF SOLAR PANELS AT WAIALEA COUNTRY CLUB IN HONOLULU, HI HELPS TO LOWER THE FACILITY’S ENERGY COSTS AND LIMIT GHG EMISSIONS.
Environmental Stewardship
Environmental stewardship is one of the best ways the golf industry can positively influence the development of a community’s climate resiliency. Here in Washington, DC, NLT’s three golf courses have never been busier with over 100,000 rounds of golf played and over 12 million driving range balls hit this past year. Due to the game’s increasing popularity, there is no shortage of potential golfer interactions with any number of climate resilient projects through educational and interpretive signage.
Additionally, golf courses can serve as living laboratories where STEM students can visit on field trips and learn about many climate-related environmental issues that plague our built and natural environments. Here in DC, those issues include the loss of habitat due to the influx of invasive species and pollution and trash in our lakes, rivers, and streams due to stormwater runoff.
Here are a few examples of stewardship projects in which instructional and interactive signage can encourage the general public to their part to build climate resilience:
Trash, composting, and recycling programs and the reasons why waste diversion is so critical to cutting GHG emissions.
Native pollinator gardens, the ecological services they provide, and the reasons why biodiversity is paramount to the health and vitality of our ecosystems which help to cool our warming climate.
Stormwater infrastructure like rain gardens, rain barrels, and retention ponds that outline why these mitigation tactics can boost climate resiliency.
Driving the Green Take
So, what is a climate resilient golf course? In our opinion, a climate resilient golf course is one that sees the opportunities for community leadership and takes the initiative to explore ways to implement many of the types of projects listed above.
Climate disasters are going to make many of our residences, communities and favorite recreation spaces inhabitable and inaccessible. One pony that came up during the climate summit was the need for community members and stakeholders to have a safe, inclusive, and accessible space to escape disaster, garner provisions and seek vital emergency information. Golf courses can become these spaces for communities and show the value they have for stakeholders beyond the recreational benefits afforded to those who play.
These projects can be very expensive to implement and daunting to initiate but they are absolutely vital for cities to undertake if they wish to be sustainable and resilient cities. Local, state and national legislation has made it easier than ever to acquire funds through grants or low-interest financing from green banks as well as through partnerships with other local organizations.
If you take anything away from this article, let it be that the first and most important step to building climate resiliency in your city is by taking action and asking yourself - is my golf course climate resilient?
