Eaton is a natural to land top environmental award

Nov 27 2007 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

GOLF COURSES are now not just for playing golf. The modern way to look after the green spaces is to think not just of golfers but the needs of wildlife too, in the style demonstrated by clubs including Eaton.

The Cheshire club is among the leaders in this green style of course management and has been so successful it has been nominated as the winner for the North of England in the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association Golf Environment Competition for 2007.

“I am thrilled we have got this,” says Rupert Thorpe, chairman of the club’s environmental group. “It really is a credit to our head greenkeeper (Gavin Clarke), the course committee and the board of the club who have supported us.”

Eaton was formed in 1920 as a nine-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 going-green management style began about six years ago.

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.

They were particularly impressed with the large areas of rough grassland providing habitat for insects and small mammals, the ponds and wetlands, where newts, dragonflies and thriving birdlife can be seen.

Hedges and thousands of trees have been planted. Three barn owl boxes have been provided and one has become 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 existing regulations.

The club was also commended for adopting the principles of “sustainable golf course management” where applications of water, fertilisers, fungicides and pesticides are kept to a minimum.

Golfers, of course, may not always agree with having their fairways managed with the needs of wildlife high on the agenda. The wild rough may be a home for small creatures but it is not always going to be welcomed by golfers if they start losing balls in the long grass. Ponds are a good idea for wildlife, too, but they may be less popular by golfers who may stray into the waters.

Rupert Thorpe says: “It is not always easy marrying the needs of wildlife with that of golfers and, of course, the golfers come first. But we have managed to bring the two needs together very successfully. Elsewhere it is not always so.

“Here the members have been kept informed all the way and have been very supportive of our efforts on behalf of the wildlife.”

The process of environmental development will continue. 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 on the course.