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Most defunct golf courses get paved over, but a number are getting transformed into ecological life rafts for wildlife, plants — and people.
The United States has more golf courses than McDonald’s locations and also has more than any other country, accounting for about 42 percent of all courses worldwide, according to the National Golf Foundation. That oversupply, coupled with development pressures, has led more golf courses to close than to open since 2006. A return to nature, or a version of it, is still relatively rarity for former golf courses, most of which end up in the hands of commercial or residential developers, according to the National Golf Foundation.
For a golf course to be turned into a public green space, an unlikely set of stars need to align. There has to be a willing seller, and, crucially, a conservation-minded buyer who can afford to not just purchase the land but to restore it.
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“We once had a very nice view that looked out on the golf course to the mountains,” said Don Olness, who serves on the board of the homeowner’s association of an adjoining condo development. But since the Oswit Land Trust bought the golf course for $9 million in 2022, the area has filled with weeds, dead trees and fallen branches, he said. “It’s basically an unkempt area,” Mr. Olness said.
Citing a lease agreement with the golf course owners, the homeowners’ association has sued to temporarily stop any changes made by the land trust, which bought the course with a donation from Brad Prescott, a philanthropist, and renamed it the Prescott Preserve.
Jane Garrison, the land trust’s founder and executive director, said the pending lawsuit is preventing the trust from accessing a multimillion dollar grant needed to properly restore the land. But of the trust’s five properties, the Prescott Preserve has quickly become the most popular.
The trust removed poison from the course’s maintenance shed, along with poison and gopher traps throughout the site, Ms. Garrison said. She and colleagues came across dead rabbits and owls and an exam confirmed that one ground squirrel had died after consuming rodenticide, which makes predators such as coyotes and bobcats susceptible to mange.
“When you remove all the poison and stop that cycle, you give those species a chance to recover,” Ms. Garrison said.
Though the restoration is just beginning, wildflowers and plants have already reappeared, she said. About 100 native trees, including desert willows, ironwoods and mesquite, were donated by a local nursery and planted. The trust decided to maintain on-site ponds with recycled water because climate change has made it difficult for wildlife to find water.
The group hopes to acquire more golf courses in Palm Springs, which, despite being in a desert, is home many courses. “When the land is gone, it’s gone forever, once they build condos,” Ms. Garrison. “But when you save it, it’s saved forever. You can’t put a price tag on that.”
