Climate change: golf needs communication
With an area natural monument in the middle of the golf course, the Erding-Grünbach Golf Club has a special feature to offer within the German golf landscape. If you look at the cadastral map, which depicts the approximately 60 hectares of the traditional club near Munich, you will discover, in addition to the golf courses and numerous hedge areas, tree strips and bodies of water, the combination of an oak tree, a pond and an alder swamp forest, which in their entirety make up this very area natural monument. The oak tree with a trunk circumference of about 4.5 meters is about 350 years old, and the entire natural monument covers an area of 2.2 hectares.
According to the Bavarian State Office for the Environment, a natural monument is a “landscape element under nature protection. This is intended to protect certain manifestations of nature, such as rock formations or springs, individual trees or avenues, for ecological, scientific, historical or local history reasons.” In fact, there are some golf clubs in Germany that have natural monuments. However, these are usually extremely old or special trees.
For the GC Erding-Grünbach this means: An intervention in the areas is basically not possible. If maintenance or safety measures are absolutely necessary, coordination with the authorities will be sought. The golf club, which also participates in the German Golf Association’s Golf & Nature quality management program, pays close attention to environmentally friendly maintenance of the golf course anyway. For the nature officer Michael Kollmair, a comparison of the parcel maps alone shows how positively the golf course has impacted the development of biodiversity on the site. In 2025, the natural monument is surrounded by greenery in all shades. Fifty years ago, beech and alder swamp forest were surrounded by classic brown fields.
In the meantime, the golf club also relies on its own “Grünspechte group” for its numerous projects, consisting of members who are interested in projects around the topic of golf & nature. Hardrough meadows are now mowed by them with a beam mower, bird perches are set up, flowering meadows are created. The touchweed on the golf course was also removed by hand in a labor-intensive operation.
The work is worthwhile, says Kollmair, who as a geographer also has a lot of interest in the topic of nature and environmental protection outside of golf. In the meantime, 223 plant species alone have been identified in the area of the GC Erding-Grünbach. Bird-watching hikes now attract not only members of the golf club, but also bird experts from the Munich area.
