Golf As Land Use

Because Golf courses are water intensive, use lots of pesticides, and are often fenced, lets learn more about golf as land use in our river valley.

Edmonton’s river valley is home to multiple golf courses but are these exclusive green spaces the best use of this land? How do golf courses intersect with biodiversity preservation and water conservation and do they help make our valley wild life or people friendly?

Learn more from the Alberta Land Institute podcast. This short podcast features the work of Arshdeep Kaur & Dr Damian Collins from the University of Aberta.

Here are highlights gleaned from the podcast:

1. 1/5 of our river valley is made up of golf courses, yep 20% of our valley

2. 6 golf courses are on pubic land constituting 364 hectares which is clustered around the city center. ERVCC notes the center of the city is a key choke point for wildlife

3. The carbon intensive upkeep uses water and pesticides and the “greens” prevent tree growth

4. There are no bylaws or reporting requirements to let the public know about their water and pesticide use

5. There is the potential for social exclusion

6. Some courses like Rundle (as one example) run at a large expensense to the entire tax base of Edmonton

Here is an opinion piece from the Edmonton Journal