Golf Courses Can Be the New Wildlife Refuge

A news release issued by the University of Missouri-Columbia indicates that golf courses can be successful wildflife sanctuaries. First, though, new recommendations and approaches to pond management must be implemented.

University of Missouri-Columbia researcher Ray Semlitsch said: "There are more than 17,000 golf courses in the United States, and approximately 70 percent of that land is not used for playing. These managed green spaces aren't surrogates for protected land and ecosystems, but they can include suitable habitat for a species native to the area."

The focus of the golf course study was amphibian populations. Among the many feasible recommendations outlined by Semlitsch, Michelle Boone of Miami University in Ohio, and J. Russell Bodie who is senior scientist for Audubon International was the suggestion that golf course management completely dry golf course ponds in the late summer or early fall to benefit amphibian population and biodiversity.

Semlitsch worked on a recent study with Boone and MU senior Cory Mosby. Referring to the recommendations detailed in their study, Semlitsch said: "It's hard for people to understand but...[m]ost natural wetlands dry for some periods of time...The natural drying process benefits amphibians, and it releases nutrients from the soil." He also said that permanently wet ponds actually harm biodiversity, whereas periodically dry ponds benefit it.

Other recommendations include "buffering aquatic habitats from chemical run-off [i.e., fertilizers, weed killers, pesticides, etc.], surrounding golf course wetlands with 150 to 300 meters of forest or natural grassland, and creating a diversity of pond types that mimic natural wetlands. "

Semlitsch, Boone, and Mosby monitored populations of American toads, spotted salamanders, and southern leopard frogs using two pond types, control reference ponds, naturally occurring in the wild, and ponds located on golf courses. Their research showed two significant findings.

First, they found that all three study populations survived better in the golf course ponds than they did in the control groups and, second, these three species groups survive better in the absence of overwintered bullfrog tadpoles that have metamorphosis cycles that typically take 12 months to complete. Compare this to the typical metamorphosis cycle times of one to four months for other tadpole species. This metamorphosis cycle time difference gives bullfrog tadpoles that have overwintered in a permanent pond, one that doesn't dry up, the advantage of being larger and more powerful. They can easily nudge out other species.

The reduced number of competing insect predators at the monitored golf course ponds was probably a factor in the better survival rate of the three species. Overwintering bullfrog tadpoles, which are common at permanent golf course ponds, act as unnatural predators and competitors of the American toads, southern leopard frogs, and spotted salamanders. Drying up of golf course ponds in accord with the model of the natural control reference ponds would prevent the bullfrog tadpoles from overwintering, which would eliminate their maturation and thereby add to the health and biodiversity of the pond's amphibian population. By properly managing golf courses, they can act as nature sanctuaries.

NOTE: Semlitsch, Boone and Mosby's study will be published later this year in the journal Conservation Biology. It was supported by the United States Golf Association and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. For a copy of Semlitsch, Boone and Bodie's paper on ways to bolster amphibian communities on golf courses, see USGA Turfgrass and Environmental Research Online at http://usgatero.msu.edu/currentpastissues.htm

Katherine Kostiuk, "The New Wildlife Refuge: Golf Courses?" University of Missouri-Columbia. URL: http://munews.missouri.edu/NewsBureauSingleNews.cfm?newsid=16006