this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2024
94 points (96.1% liked)

News

23275 readers
3519 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Most defunct golf courses get paved over, but a number are getting transformed into ecological life rafts for wildlife, plants — and people.

There was scraggly grass in one sand trap and wooden blocks and a toy castle in another, evidence of children at play. People were walking their dogs on the fairway, which was looking rather ragged and unkempt. This was only to be expected.

Nowadays, these grounds are mowed just twice a year, and haven’t been doused with pesticides or rodenticides since 2018, which was when this 157-acre stretch of land stopped being the San Geronimo Golf Course, and began a journey toward becoming wild, or at least wilder, once again.

A small number of shuttered golf courses around the country have been bought by land trusts, municipalities and nonprofit groups and transformed into nature preserves, parks and wetlands. Among them are sites in Detroit, Pennsylvania, Colorado, the Finger Lakes of upstate New York, and at least four in California.

Non-paywall link

top 8 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 20 points 9 months ago

This is awesome! Rewilding land is good for us, good for the climate and good for the animals.

[–] MisterChief@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

I'm gonna catch hate for this but I enjoy golf. I don't play often, 5-10 times per year at most however nothing beats a day out with the boys, plenty of beer and joints, and smacking lil balls around with crooked sticks.

Having said that my local muni 5 min down the road has 3 18 hole courses. They shut one down a little over 4 years ago and didn't know what to do with it, so in the meantime, being county owned land, they turned it into a park. They didnt change anything. The first year was odd, it felt like you were walking on a golf course with a broken lawn mower. Now, 4 years later, it's completely wild and I love it. Some trees have begun to crack and grow through the pathways and there is so much wildlife everywhere from deer to coyotes to birds and so many small mice and chipmunks.

It really is quite peaceful and beautiful out there. The county decided to permanently leave as a park and it feels like a small escape from everyday life. There are about 5 miles of trails as well as a connection to an adjacent park with a couple more miles of wooded trails and a small lake for catch and release fishing. The maintenance there is next to zero and it rarely ever has more than 4 or 5 cars in the lot, making it rare to see anyone out there. I take my dog out there at least 2-3 times per week.

I fully support returning unused land back to nature. It's quite exciting to see it slowly transform over time.

[–] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Have you expressed your support for that plan by actually saying anything to the city or county you live in?

[–] MisterChief@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Voice my opinion and participate in local government? Preposterous! /s

They had some public forums on it a couple years ago. I did not go but they did release a survey online shortly after that I completed. Took less than 5 min and I did submit my preference to keep it undeveloped as a park.

[–] funkforager@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 months ago

You could marry your old love and your new love by taking the boys out for disc golf. Just as many beers but maybe a few more joints. Plus you can play in a section of the wooded park that used to be a golf course.

[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago

Should be doing this to the rest of em.

[–] SpiceDealer@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

This should be the fate of every defunct golf course. Better yet, how about banning the sport all together?

[–] cymbal_king@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

There's one of these near me! The dogs love it