These days, when it rains heavily in the southeast Houston neighborhood of Clear Lake, residents can rest easy. But that wasn’t always the case. It used to be that when it rained, they’d haul out their mops and buckets. As the storm drains filled, water would routinely back up into basements, causing disastrous flooding. But when the golf course adjacent to residents’ backyards closed in the early 2000s, it was the answer to their flooding woes.
In 2005, the Clear Lake Water Authority bought the land with the intent of creating five massive detention ponds, each capable of holding 100 million gallons of stormwater (the equivalent of 750 Olympic-sized swimming pools). It took approximately six years to complete the purchase and another two to gather community input.
And although residents were happy to see their flooding problems vanish, they wanted more than just detention ponds: They wanted green space, walking trails and a place for nature to flourish. It took a while, but at last, in the fall of 2023 the engineering and water retention part of the project was complete, and other than some ongoing planting of native plant species, Exploration Green is a reality. The former golf course is now part of a 200-acre nature reserve, with a centerpiece of five interconnected lakes attached to the area’s stormwater infrastructure.
A bird habitat island on one of the artificial lakes provides a place for migrating birds to rest and feel protected from predators. Walking trails circumnavigate the lakes, and over 1,000 native plants grow with abandon on what were once perfectly manicured fairways and putting greens. The reserve is a community gathering place not just for recreation but for education, too. During Houston Bird Week in September, residents can register for guided bird walks to learn more about the many species that frequent the reserve. It is exactly what residents hoped for — including having dry homes.
In 2017, Hurricane Harvey dumped approximately 50 inches of rain on the Houston area. “The first lake was 90 percent complete when Harvey hit,” explains David Sharp, chairman of the board of directors of the Exploration Green Conservancy, the nonprofit created to manage the site’s ecological restoration and sustainability. “There were 200 houses in the immediate area that would regularly get flooded with any kind of heavy rain. Not one house flooded,” he recalls.
Exploration Green is not the only golf course that has seen a rewilding. As golf’s popularity has waned in recent years, other courses have also been re-envisioned as places for people and nature to thrive.
According to the National Golf Foundation, there were almost four million fewer golfers in 2024 than in 2003. The cost to operate a private golf club can be as much as $1 million annually, and with fewer golfers hitting the links, owners are not able to meet operating budgets, and courses have been sold. In 2022 alone, more than 100 golf courses shuttered across the U.S., leaving many acres of unused land ripe for reimagining. Couple this with a 2023 study which found that 97 percent of all metropolitan areas in the United States have insufficient open space, and unused golf courses become an invaluable resource.
The benefits of preserving open spaces, as the authors of the report note, are numerous. They provide opportunities for people to experience nature, socialize and participate in healthy recreational activities — something the residents of the municipalities of Churchill and Penn Hills outside of Pittsburgh are passionate about.
“When the Churchill Valley Golf Club closed in 2013, it was bought by a private developer,” says Lindsay Dill, senior director of marketing and community engagement for Allegheny Land Trust (ALT). When the people in the surrounding community heard of the proposals for a sprawling housing development or industrial park, they weren’t on board. Since the course was abandoned, “they’d been using the golf cart paths to take families on walks,” Dill says. “The area had become an extension of their backyards.”
ALT bought the land in 2021 and immediately began rewilding efforts. Because the land had been unused for nearly a decade before ALT’s purchase, much of it had begun to rewild on its own — including the rapid spread of invasive plant species. ALT volunteers removed unwanted plants and replaced them with over 1,000 native plants and trees.
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Our smart, bright, weekly newsletter is the uplift you’ve been looking for.The remediated landscape of these reclaimed golf courses is a stark juxtaposition to the man-made efforts once used to keep them pristine. In 2006, just as golf’s popularity was beginning to wane, a report by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America found that 101,096 tons of nitrogen were applied to an estimated 1,311,000 acres of golf courses throughout the U.S. That’s the equivalent of 154 pounds of nitrogen per acre. Nitrogen fertilizers exude nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas contributing to climate change.
Returning a golf course to a natural space, though, can be pricey. Surrounding the renamed Churchill Valley Greenway are numerous abandoned coal mines that discharge a form of water pollution known as abandoned mine drainage (AMD). This water full of heavy metals seeps into the ground, impacting the growth of aquatic plants and harming wildlife. A multi-million dollar filtration system to remove AMD contaminated water will need to be installed at Churchill Valley Greenway as part of the restoration process.
In Akron, Ohio, it cost $3 million to purchase Valley View Golf Club and more to ecologically restore its 200 acres. When the owner of the golf course retired, Summit Metro Parks, the second oldest park district in Ohio, grabbed the opportunity and in 2016 purchased the land. “We’ve had our eye on the property for over 100 years,” says Mike Johnson, chief of conservation for Summit Metro Parks. The final jewel in the park system’s crown, the addition of this area creates a continuous line of over 1,800 acres of green space in Summit County.
Serious about doing the job right, Summit Metro Parks bulldozed and stripped the land bare. Three hundred Norway spruce trees, an evergreen species non-native to North America, were uprooted. Drain tiles used to hold back water and dredge wetlands were uncovered and removed. Within months, the water flowed freely. Fairways were planted with native meadow mixes. Now, wild columbine and lupines intermingle with an array of over 120,000 newly planted native nut trees including walnut, hickory and buckeye.
Was there opposition to rewilding these courses? “We held public meetings and invited the public in to talk about what they wanted. Nobody suggested housing, [but] there were a couple of people who wished we’d keep it as a golf course,” Johnson admits. (“Mostly my Dad,” he jokes. The waning popularity of golf had made it easy to get a tee time at Valley View — something Johnson’s father appreciated.)
Through public presentations and direct outreach, ALT was also able to demonstrate to local officials how cost-effective conserving the land was. “By putting a housing plan on the site, it would create a need for more public amenities, such as sewers and roads. We were able to show the benefits of keeping the land natural compared to the costs of development,” says Dill.
Around the world, the crack of the five iron is quieting. In Britain, Pewit golf course in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, closed in 2022 due to operating losses. A public consultation reported that nine in 10 residents supported the idea of the land becoming a nature reserve. In Victoria, Canada, the fairways at the once-popular Prospect Point Golf Course are no longer mowed to within half an inch of their life. Instead, knee-deep meadows of native wildflowers flourish. The nonprofit group Power To Be works to make nature available to anyone regardless of physical impairment and in 2018 was gifted a 30-year lease for $1 a year to use the site for its programs.
“The key thing for our population is accessibility. Having the golf course footprint was critical for us,” says Jason Cole, co-chief executive officer of Power to Be. The level ground quintessential to a golf course makes it easy for wheelchair users and others with mobility issues to access and enjoy nature. In 2023 the organization hosted almost 2,500 people with accessibility needs at the refurbished Prospect Lake site.
How do golfers feel about these transformations? Sharp took his reticent father on a golf cart tour of the rewilded Valley View Golf Club and is happy to report: “He likes it!”
