Chambers Bay Golf Course |
Audubon International worked cooperatively with Pierce County
on 250 acres to restore habitat and to provide a
cohesive educational program aimed at golfers, areas
residents, and trail users at Chambers Bay Golf
Course. The property was previously disturbed by the
mining operations of the Glacier/Lone Star Northwest
Gravel Mine. The entire project covers 928-acres of
Chambers Creek Properties containing parcels that
included 650 acres of gravel mines, two miles of
shoreline, and 3 miles long forest ravine and creek
with a backdrop of Puget Sound, McNeil and Fox
Islands and a western horizon framed by the Olympic
Mountains.
Chambers Bay Golf Course is an
18-hole walking-only, public resort, links-style
golf course divided by the SoundView multi-purpose
trail. Residents from surrounding areas walk, jog,
and enjoy the views. The SoundView Trail system was
opened to the public May 5, 2007 and welcomes dogs,
families, bicycles, walkers, and runners. It
provides public access right through the golf course
and along the western edge of the property bordering
Puget Sound. In the 1970s the site was the most
productive sand mine in U.S. and when the entire
project is completed, it will have the longest
expanse of public beaches in Washington State. The
only remnants of the sand and gravel mines are
period structures along the south edge of hole #18.
But arguably the most impressive natural features on
the site are the dunes created during the
construction process and vegetated with native
plants and grasses. Course designers, Bruce Charlton
and Jay Blasi with Robert Trent Jones II, created a
layout that restored the land to look like it was
carved right out of dunes.
Many holes are isolated by the
dunes while others are breathtaking because of the
changes in elevations. Although there are no trees
on the property except the lone Douglas fir behind
the 16th tee, terrestrial wildlife will
find shelter within the adjacent Northern Forest
Preserve of mixed conifer-deciduous forest with
dominant species of Douglas fir, Pacific madrone,
red cedar and ocean spray. To view more of Chambers
Bay, visit the website at www.chambersbaygolfcourse.com |
