Over the last few months, I have been working with both the superintendent and assistant superintendent of Blackhawk Country Club’s golf course to coordinate their BioBlitz, an event held by golf courses nation-wide through Audubon Internationals Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf. When the idea of assisting in the planning of this event was first suggested to me by the CEO of Audubon International, I was hesitant. I had never planned a species focused event – or any outdoor event for that matter – and I wasn’t sure about the time commitment required through the months of April and May when I had anticipated focusing solely on end-of-semester asignments and papers. I pondered the idea and my own excuses briefly before becoming aware of what a rare and SPOT ON opportunity this was for me to combine my interests in public outreach, golf, and wildlife.

My BioBlitz contact at AI, Kat, reached out to several golf courses in the Madison area and Blackhawk Country Club, one of few courses in the area already certified by AI, agreed to host the event. I first met with Chad and Chris from Blackhawk in late April. Each course that decides to participate in this event is provided a Toolkit, or rather a file containing several documents. The Toolkit provides an agenda with suggestions and requirements to assist in the planning of the event and actions needed both prior to and following the BioBlitz. Being able to use this Toolkit firsthand, alongside Chad and Chris, allowed me to experience and analyze its strengths and weaknesses.

As Blackhawk Country Club is a private course, Chad and Chris were reluctant to advertise for an event open to the entire public. For this reason, we decided to reach out to several groups of individuals; Shorewood Village community members, Blackhawk Country Club members, Nelson Institute students, and UW Photography Club members. And, of course, we each also invited our own family members. We spread word of our event through emails, newsletters, and postings at the Blackhawk clubhouse and pro shop. In hopes of attracting more participants as well as wildlife, we decided to have two sessions of species counting on a Saturday, sunrise to 7:30AM and 5:30- 7:30PM, and offered species counting cards to those golfing on the course for one whole week prior to the Saturday event (per requirements, no event was to extend one week).

I noted two things when workings with the superintendent and assistant superintendent that will likely be applicable to all future encounters with golf course staff: (1) Those that work with the actual landscape, resources, and wildlife are not the individuals who get to make the decisions. (2) The least interruptive an event is to golf time, the better. With this realization, learning how to navigate through complex industries to communicate changes needed to support the environment to decision makers will be crucial. I am also aware of the significance in reaching out and gaining approval or learning the concerns of all stakeholders along the way.

For those wondering, we were successful in counting many species on the day of the event. Though this course is AI certified, I still found myself looking for ways in which to improve the course landscape to better support wildlife, specifically for amphibian species (shocking, I know). The majority of the plants and animals counted were trees and birds. This event, if anything, increased my anticipation in learning and working with AI to identify potential corridors and habitats that may be enhanced to promote biodiversity.

As far as community involvement goes, we had 1 golfer sign up and take a species counting card during his own round of golf, 7 individuals participate in the early morning Saturday session, and 12 individuals participate in the evening Saturday session. Though we did not have as many participants as we had hoped, we were able to have a UW entomologist student present on the three beehives she is managing and monitoring on the course. The student, Audrey, is currently working on the promotion of pollinators through a partnership between UW Madison Turf grass Science educators and golf courses which has resulted in established and monitored honeybee hives on several golf courses.

As I will be headed to New York next week to work on the analysis of all BioBlitz events, I am looking forward to learning other ways of hosting, and especially advertising, for the event. I feel that the public may have been more responsive to the event if we had highlighted Audrey’s presentation on pollinators on golf courses as a main feature. Though I’d like to think that everyone and anyone would love to walk around on a beautiful course, or any outdoor landscape, and point out different plants and animals, that is, unfortunately, just not the case. I also feel that I should have been more adamant about reaching out on social media and perhaps even creating a Facebook Page for the event. Again, this was difficult as I had to gain approval from Chad and Chris for each post or email sent out, who then had to gain approval from upper management themselves.

I took away some knowledge related to social systems within the golf industry, including who runs the course, who cares about the quality of the course, and who notices the impacts of the course. As I could have anticipated from certain course discussions and scenarios, these all seemed to be different groups of individuals. I also determined that I would need to focus on my “sales tactics” when trying to gain societal interest. I feel I need to be a little less passive and, of course, a bit more knowledgeable. For that reasons, aside from the BioBlitz work I will be carrying out at the AI headquarters, I am eager to learn more about the conservation science of their organization so that I can more confidently and reliably spread community awareness on the topic of green golf courses. Learning when to push for opportunities that further benefit the environment rather than the golf business, or rather ways to better balance the two, will be a skill I anticipate strengthening throughout this placement.