Wild New Jersey Exclusive: Wildlife and the golf course, from Caddyshack to Coyoteshack
By Bill Wheeler, WildNewJersey.tv
New Jersey is home to thousands of golfers playing dozens of suburban courses serving as serene getaways from the urban chaos. One course, Cruz Farms Golf Club sits amidst dense woods and horse farms and resembles more of a wildlife sanctuary with fairways weaving through it.
My golfing buddy and I have played this course every week for two months and have had regular encounters with a strange assortment of animals but nothing as amazing as this sighting along the twelfth fairway!
Suddenly, bounding out of the woods was this large golden grayish creature running alongside a stream and disappearing into a dense thicket. Our mouths were wide open as we both thought: "What was that?!?"
We had seen in the past seven weeks a bald eagle, a giant snapping turtle, a deer, a four foot northern water snake, a great blue heron, red tail hawks, racoons, muskrats, egrets, box turtles, woodchucks, bullfrogs, chipmunks and cottontail rabbits by the score. I ruled out a deer right away, then eliminated it being a large dog.
But that moment we witnessed something I had not seen since a trip to Yellowstone National Park eight years ago......... a full grown coyote traversing through our golf course but to him it was just another natural habitat in the middle of suburbia.
A coyote cruising around a golf course in Canada. Note: This is NOT the coyote seen at Cruz Farm Golf Course.
Photo credit anirama.com/Canada/canada4.htm
Although it seemed as if we were in Jumanji, we were in the heartland of New Jersey at Cruz Farm Golf Course. And Cruz Farm is hardly the only golf course in New Jersey to offer wildlife a sanctuary. Though the classic film "Caddyshack" relegated wildlife to Bill Murray's nemesis gopher and the wild going's on of Chevy Chase and Rodney Dangerfield, nature has been proven to co-exist quite well with golf courses when course designers and greens keepers utilize the existing habitat where possible.
Water snake.
In 2003, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service recognized Pine Hill Golf Club in Camden County for its work in preserving wildlife habitat, including the last remaining native brook trout stream in southern New Jersey and riparian habitat for the federally threatened plant, swamp pink. The club spent over $1 million to create a new stream channel for the brook trout.
Hopewell Valley Golf Club in Central New Jersey has been recognized for its "River-Friendly" environmental land stewardship. Hopewell expanded its wildlife habitat by 8 acres.
Cottontail rabbit
And in Hudson County, Bayonne Golf Club undertook a wetlands restoration that dramatically transformed a former landfill into an intertidal estuarine habitat with prime habitat for forage fish, juvenile striped bass and bluefish, waterfowl, and wading birds like egrets, herons, and ibis. Its Scottish-style uplands has regular sightings American woodcock, snowy owl, and American kestrel.
As author Ronald Dodson writes in "Managing Wildlife Habitat on Golf Courses", "In order to develop a true appreciation for the game of golf and the environment in which it is played - as in other areas of life - we must stop occasionally to enjoy the sights and sounds of wildlife and the nature that surrounds us."
David Wheeler contributed to this story.
Snapping turtle.
Ducklings make sure not to stray too far from their mother.
Posted by WILDNEWJERSEY at 7/30/2010 6:00 AM 
Categories: WNJ Exclusives, Wildlife
Tags: muskrats bullfrogs cottontail rabbits wildlife racoons box turtles red tail hawks great blue heron water snake coyote bald eagle cruz farms golf club egrets deer snapping turtle woodchucks
Categories: WNJ Exclusives, Wildlife
Tags: muskrats bullfrogs cottontail rabbits wildlife racoons box turtles red tail hawks great blue heron water snake coyote bald eagle cruz farms golf club egrets deer snapping turtle woodchucks
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