Market Harborough Golf Club
MHGC and the Environment
The nationally recognised, and completely self-funded, work of Market Harborough Golf Club in the areas of sustainability and the environment is undertaken by a small group of members principally comprising Jim Jacobs and John Doran. The aim of the group is to promote the environment becoming one of the main considerations when ever short and longer term decisions are made re the wider golf estate. MHGC is well placed in this respect having been the “birthplace” of the Greener Golf organisation now spreading inexorably across the midlands. Those interested should go to www.greenergolf.co.uk to see the work of this organisation.
Within the club the group’s recent activities have included encouraging LED lighting and airated water taps, encouraging the use of wooden tees and the avoidance of single use plastics, recycling, the creation of a water recycling machinery wash down area, and advising concerning lake and pond maintenance. We are also looking to provide a water butt at the clubhouse so as to reduce the amount of mains water being used to water clubhouse flower beds etc.
Over the years we have deployed over a hundred bird nesting boxes around the course and have recently been working with the Hawk and Owl Trust to clean and monitor the various owl nesting boxes we have on the course. It was great to have the Kites nesting on the course in 2023 and this year we have had kestrels nesting and increasing numbers of buzzards in the skies above.
We encourage biodiversity in every way we can and have an ambition to establish an “arm of biodiversity” stretching across the course from north to south from which differing plant species can spread and establish, with all the associated flora and fauna benefits. This stretches from the top of the ninth across through to the academy course to behind the fourth tees and on down through the conifers to the areas to the left of the fifth. In these areas we are attempting to establish a range of different plants and flowers, not with the intention of making the course look “pretty” but to provide a reservoir of plant life that will eventually support a far wider spectrum of animal, bird and plant life.
The creation of a wider range of habitats is also an important element of our work, so we have built a couple of dead hedges behind the fifth and seventeenth greens. This together with the log wall on the path up to the sixth tee is helping to keep the badgers off the nearby tees and green. The log wall not only provides some definition, but it also enables the club to use timber that would otherwise have to be disposed of or burnt at some environmental cost. Both the dead hedges and the log wall will be regularly “topped up” and will eventually break down to provide a very valuable habitat for a wide range of insects and animals.
Through the autumn of 2024 the group will also be undertaking a comprehensive survey of all the trees across the estate with a view to initially compiling a full record and then to work with the greens team to consider where there might be opportunities to thin, fell, plant and even transplant some trees. This survey will also be looking at the possible impact of losing all our ash trees if the ash dieback disease continues to spread across the country.
One of the first steps in this area will be the establishment of an on-course Tree Nursery which can be used to accommodate and grow on young trees which can then be planted out on the course when needed. If any members have any young trees they would be happy to donate please contact us.
However by far and away the most urgent matter likely to be affecting golf courses like ours in future years will be the threat of not being able to use mains water for course irrigation. To this end we are working with the directors and the greens team to look at all our possible ways forward. This will involve working with both the water supply and the drainage authorities, our local authorities, DEFRA, and local interest groups. This work will be assisted by the networking power within the Greener Golf organisation.
All the work of the group is self-funded by way of member donations and corporate sponsorship, in which respect thanks are due, amongst others, to Helix Tool Company, Thompson and Morgan, Dobies Garden Centres, and MeadowMania. Anyone with an interest in this work should contact Jim Jacobs at the club, we welcome any donations of ideas, time, plants, trees or money!!
August 2024.
Get in Touch
Great Oxendon Road, Market Harborough
Leicestershire
LE16 8NB
Tel: 01858 463684
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