I read last week’s article in The News about the proposed golf course with great concern. The proposed Choate course would be wasteful in every respect: a waste of money that could be better spent elsewhere, a waste of a significant portion of Choate’s remaining undeveloped land, and a waste of time and effort on a project that, if built, would only be utilized by a small minority of the Choate community. It would join an abundance of courses in the immediate vicinity at a time when course play is declining across the country and could possibly entangle Choate in a civic nightmare that might strain the historically strong relationship between the school and the town of Wallingford. Most alarmingly, the course would destroy acres of pristine open space while displacing precious animal habitat and harming the environment irrevocably.
Mr. Herbert Kohler, Chair of the Choate Board of Trustees, is an avid golf fan who has built four critically-acclaimed courses across the country. Recently, he proposed a similar course for the Choate campus and even offered to fully fund the project and any maintenance costs. The course, which would be located on the upper campus, on the eastern periphery, on a plot of designated wetlands, could cost as much as $20 million to construct, according to The News’ recent piece. Additionally, maintenance and staffing of the course could cost up to $635,930 per year, based on reported United States Golf Association averages for private courses. The course would join four others in Wallingford alone as well as tens of others within driving distance. The timing is especially unseemly, as this weekend’s Hartford Courant reported sharp decreases in golf club memberships and rounds played over the past decade. Simply put, this vast sum of money would be far better spent in support of other Choate causes, such as those indicated as priorities in Choate’s recently launched capital campaign.
Even if the concerns over cost were tossed aside, Choate would be losing acres of undeveloped land while harming its recently reinvigorated environmental reputation–and harming the environment itself. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, an average golf course utilizes between 150 and 200 acres of land. Thus, the proposed course could consume as much as 45% of Choate’s 450 total acres of land. Choate has a moral obligation to protect this immense plot of animal habitat, wetlands, and forests.
Dr. Tom Cook, associate professor of horticulture at Oregon State University told Golf Course News in May, 2003 that a golf course requires eight pounds of pesticides per treated acre, or more than double the per/acre use at a typical farm. These pesticides would be harmful to animal habitat, and create runoff that could pollute Choate’s streams and ponds. Additionally, Weather Metrics, a company specializing in weather analysis and its use in golf course irrigation, estimates that the average golf course in New England utilizes nearly 35 million gallons of water per year. For a school that just recently launched its HydroCup water conservation challenge, such an immense waste of water seems hypocritical. Finally, a golf course would require the uprooting and removal of hundreds if not thousands of trees. These trees provide invaluable benefits, including oxygen for our air, habitat for countless species of plants and wildlife, and drainage of rainwater. Without these trees, an increased potential for flooding exists, as has occurred on the girl’s soccer field following the removal of trees for the construction of the new track.
A golf course on Choate land? It’s the wrong idea in the wrong place at the wrong time.
