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The Environment
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Celebrating the Wonders of Nature?
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Environmental Impact Considerations
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Of immediate concern:
- What kind of defoliant have they used on the golf course to kill off all the grass? What prevents it from leaching into the lagoon?
- The local chapter of the Sierra Club tried from the outset to get information from the Audubon Institute and see the design of the new golf course. They were ignored.
- The maintenance of the sort of immaculate Disneyland course that the new design is to be will require a tremendous regimen of chemicals. The old course, like most British courses, does not receive such dubious attention.
- The Audubon Institute has promised not to cut live oaks. It is clear that the new design cannot be achieved without some cutting of oaks. In any case, cypresses -- equally desirable, just as beautiful, and even longer-lived -- are given no such protection. A grove of about 20 of these MUST be cut to accommodate the new 15th hole.
- The construction of four new lagoons is questionable, and its impact should be studied. Waterfowl from the nearby rookery will inevitably be drawn to these lagoons, coming inexorably into the line of fire. Wouldn't the planting of new cypress or poplar groves be a better way to accomplish separation of the fairways?
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