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Longaberger Golf Club |
Longaberger Golf Club, owned by the Longaberger Basket Company family,
is an 800-acre property located in Nashport, Ohio. Set in the rolling
hills typical of central and southeastern Ohio, the property includes
forest, brushland, and open field habitats featuring many mature
American beech and oak trees. Audubon International worked with
property developers to protect large blocks of habitat and ensure that
the forest canopy would continue to provide refuge for many woodland
birds, including pileated woodpeckers, red-eyed vireos, and scarlet
tanagers. The Arthur Hills-designed course encompasses 500 acres with only 180 acres disturbed during
development. Of this, the development team was able to restore
approximately 90 acres of grasslands. The grasslands will provide
habitat for birds, such as bobolink, savanna sparrow, and eastern
meadowlark, which need larger grassland habitats to thrive. Longaberger’s Arthur Hills course is the first public golf facility in
Ohio to be certified as an Audubon Signature Sanctuary. To
learn more about Longaberger, go to its web site at www.longaberger.com |
Sand Ridge Golf Club |
In a region of the country
known for its maple syrup, and within the primary snow belt of
northeastern Ohio, sits Sand Ridge Golf Club on 359 acres in the western
foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. This land in the heart of
Geauga County in the Southern Great Lakes Natural Region was formerly
used for agricultural crop production, orchard products, and livestock
pastures. A system of elevated bridges crosses 102 acres of
wetlands that support high quality wetland plants such as cardinal
flower, marsh mallow, and orange jewelweed. The 17th hole is known
as “Headwaters” because it is the headwater area for the Chagrin River
and Cuyahoga River watersheds of Lake Erie. Sand Ridge Golf Club
was designated as the first private Certified Audubon Signature Sanctuary in
Ohio on June 10, 1998. Visit Sand Ridge Golf Club at www.sandridgegolf.com |
Washington Golf Learning Center (WGLC)
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Combining
the expertise of the Cleveland Metropolitan Park District (Cleveland
Metroparks) staff with the technical expertise of Audubon International,
another Cleveland park recreational facility was produced that carries
with it recognition as a sustainable development through the Audubon
International Gold Signature Program. The principal attribute of the
degraded WGLC project property, is that despite being in a densely
developed residential/industrial zoned community, it serves as an
"island of green” or a resting and refueling spot for birds crossing
Lake Erie. WGLC is literally either the last in northward migration or
the first in southward migration refueling area before or after the
crossing of Lake Erie. So the challenge for this project became to
design, build, and maintain a golf teaching facility and at the same
time restore quality wildlife habitat. One of the most important
resulting features of the site is the 4.5-acre wetland complex consisting of three wetland
cells, which created 1.4-acres of open water, 2.5-acres of wet meadow,
0.4-acres of cattail marsh, and 0.2-acres of wet forest. The entire
golf course drainage system flows into the wetland complex through a
series of storm piping, vegetated swales, and overland flows providing
new and quality habitat.
Another aspect of the project was the First Tee
Program. Unlike other First Tee courses that
provide a single golf hole “off to the side” for
instruction of young people, Cleveland Metroparks
dedicated the entire 9th hole course to the First
Tee program. In addition, Cleveland Municipal
School District Washington Park Horticulture Center
is located on six acres within the property. The
vocational education center has operated since 1977
and teaches over 250 students enrolled in workforce
development. Cleveland Metroparks anticipates the
schools core curriculum will be expanded to include
courses such as golf course design, landscape
design, arboriculture, and arboretum design. The
entire project site will become an outdoor
classroom, or “land laboratory” for the students.
Washington Golf Learning Center is a prime example
of a successful, ecologically focused, collaborative
partnership between for-profit and not-for-profits
groups: Cleveland Metroparks (which manages and
maintains the property), First Tee of Cleveland
(which financed the project), International
Management Group (which designed the project),
Mid-America Golf (which built the course), The
Cleveland Municipal School District (which will
integrate education), the City of Cleveland (which
owns it), and Audubon International (which provided
sustainable development guidance). For more
information about Cleveland Metroparks and the WGLC,
visit the website at www.clevelandmetroparks.com |
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