With the environmental programme"Golf & Nature", the German Golf Association (DGV) provides participating clubs with practical guidance for an environmentally sound and economic future, as well as an improvement in playing conditions.
Focal points of the programme:
The DGV concept aims to combine optimal conditions for golf with the greatest possible protection of nature. In addition to the playing areas, about 50 hectares of the total area of the Hohwacht Golf Course are extensively maintained or left as biotopes to develop unaffected.
The large oak trees to the right of tee 1 are home to pairs of resident Spotted and Black Woodpeckers. The spotted woodpecker pecks up to 15 times a second.
The green woodpecker lives on C course
Since the woodpeckers build a new cavity every year, there is a surplus of cavities for other cavity-nesting birds such as tits, bumblebees or dormice. The greenkeepers leave the coveted dead and soft old wood as they are. Especially in spring, you can often hear and see the woodpeckers.
From drive 11, you can see the 500-hectare "Kronswarder" conservation area with the large inland lake, which was a bay of the Baltic Sea 100 years ago. In spring and autumn, thousands of geese and the majestic cranes rest here for several weeks on their way to Scandinavia or southern Spain. For some years now, about 200 cranes have also stayed with us over winter.
Starlings also like to eat mosquitoes. However, they much prefer to peck at the soil for food and thus loosen the soil at the same time. In 2017, the greenkeepers built and hung 20 nesting boxes for the beautiful cavity-nesting birds.
Our Head Greenkeeper is an enthusiastic beekeeper and provides forage with several flower strips in addition to the rape and fruit blossom season. The beehives are located in a sheltered spot on course 3. The club’s own honey – Hohwachter Golfhonig – with the beautiful label is quickly sold out.
Bats regulate the insect population as they feed on mosquitoes, gnats, moths, butterflies, spiders and beetles. A small bat can eat up to 1000 mosquitoes per night. We built them a beautiful wooden house at the tee hut on the Golfodrome.
Approximately 150 fruit trees are scattered around the site. The magical blossom in spring and the fruit that follows delight golfers and insects. Fruit pickers hang from the trees. In the clubhouse, you can taste the organic apple juice and fruit schnapps and take them home.
An apple a day ...
Every year, the Hohwacht greenkeepers plant many flower strips.
In 2016, "Bunte Meter" ("Colourful Meters") were given by
NABU as a tea off gift to 120
Participants of the summer festival tournament with the theme "Golf &
Nature" were given away.
Not only the beautiful goldfinch is happy.
On Hohwacht Golf Course (near drive 5), you can see the small-leaved linden planted in autumn 2016.