Working with the environment
Being located on the beautiful Suffolk coast in one of the most picturesque areas of the country, and with a wealth of wildlife surrounding the course, Thorpeness Hotel and Golf Club have a strong commitment to environmental issues.
Thorpeness golf club was made an SSSI – Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1999, and even if you don’t play golf, you can still take advantage of the plethora of nature on offer.
Thorpeness boasts rare species of orchids and mushrooms and taking a walk over the footpaths covering the course offer an ideal opportunity to spot the resident hedgehogs, adders, rabbits and bats, plus the Whitetail Fish Eagle and Marsh Harrier have all been known to visit!
In 2005, for the second concurrent year, Thorpeness won the south-east regional award in the BIGGA – the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association annual Golf Environment Competition and have already taken steps to ensure that they can win the overall title next year! | 
Ian Willett, Course Manager at Thorpeness and his team of Greenkeepers work closely with the Suffolk Sandlings Project, Suffolk Wildlife Trust and English Nature to ensure that they work with rather than against the local environment.
“Golf clubs in general get a bad press when it comes to environmental matters, and we are determined here to make that old news,” Ian commented. “Golf courses do little damage to wildlife; in fact they are an oasis for wildlife within urban areas. At Thorpeness we currently have areas specifically for the rejuvenation of heathers and gorse and offer the perfect habitat for the Nightjar and Woodlark species. We have a large recycling facility which is open too, to the residents of Thorpeness village and are determined to continue ensuring our golf course is a haven for wildlife.”
The golf club has recently installed a water recycling system, and have also errected a variety of nesting boxes for birds and bats.
“We have a large variety of wildlife on the golf course, and the addition of the bird boxes and bat boxes will hopefully encourage many of them to make Thorpeness their home”, continued course Manager, Ian Willett.
“The bird boxes are of varying sizes ideal for Blue Tits, Owls and Hawks to name a few, and we hope that we can increase on our 2 colonies of bats by encouraging more to set up home in our new bat boxes around the course.”
Local environmentalist and member at Thorpeness, Dr Ray Harding, has been keeping a diary of the wildlife activities on the golf course over the past few years, and will be monitoring the boxes closely as the new Thorpeness residents take advantage of the new accommodation.
|
