An award-winning golf club near London has won plaudits from bee and butterfly experts by transforming rough into nectar-rich wildflower meadows.
Featured in a new episode of YouTube series The Green Report by Syngenta – broadcast to mark International Thank a Greenkeeper Day on September 8 – nature-conscious greenkeepers Matt Aplin and Melissa Winkworth at Goring & Streatley Golf Club explain how they have created 7.5 hectares of habitat perfect for pollinating insects.
According to local beekeeper Rob Nickless of Meadow Honey Farm, the golf course, which sits on chalk downland in the Thames Valley, is his most productive cropping site, yielding hundreds of jars of honey and making the club more than £20,000 in revenue, all reinvested into further biodiversity projects.
“Most people expect golf courses to be green deserts,” said Nickless. “Far from it. There are fantastic amounts of flowering plants here and it is beautiful natural forage for the bees.”
Syngenta established Operation Pollinator to address the decline in natural habitats and pollinator numbers. Active in 41 countries, the initiative is estimated to have restored biodiversity across more than eight million hectares of unused land.
Simon Elsworth of Syngenta said: “Pollinators as a group are critical to the environment and for the production of our food. Without pollinators much of the world’s food wouldn’t exist, or would be produced much more inefficiently.
“What Matt, Melissa and the team here have done here is a real exemplar. By taking some areas out of high maintenance and allowing them to regenerate into areas for biodiversity, it reduces the labor requirements and enables the team to spend more time on the in-play areas, creating brilliant playing experiences for customers.”
Related – How to Be a Bee-Friendly Golf Course
Like many greenkeepers around the world, the team at Goring & Streatley care passionately about the golf courses they manage and the environment they work in.
Melissa Winkworth, Deputy Course Manager, whose interest in ecology kick-started the biodiversity projects at the club, said: “It’s great to see how far we’ve come and how people have bought into it. Now, we are always looking to see where we can add wildflowers.”
Course Manager Matt Aplin confirmed further projects are planned, funded by sales of honey.
“We look at things completely differently now,” he said. “We’re looking to create an orchard close to the beehives where we are going to plant around 150 apple, plum, pear and cherry trees which will be pollinated by the bees and harvest the fruit to use in the clubhouse.”
The episode release coincides with International Thank A Greenkeeper Day, an annual campaign recognizing the hard work and dedication of turf management professionals worldwide.
The Green Report docuseries recently surpassed 100,000 views, providing a global platform for leading course superintendents to showcase practical environmental stewardship and progressive land management.
Golf clubs and sports facilities interested in joining Operation Pollinator can register at: https://turf.syngentaturflandscape.com/en-gb/operation-pollinator
To watch all episodes of The Green Report and access case studies on sustainable golf, visit syngentagolf.com
