Golfers and scouts make “Nature Park colorful”

Children are enthusiastic and thirsty for knowledge. Nevertheless, with longer school days, life in the city and planned leisure time, there is less and less time for environmental education. “Over the past ten years, we’ve noticed that children who are new to us know fewer and fewer plants and animals,” notes Paul Ziegenhagel from the boy scouts in Bad Herrenalb when he and his children Pack of great spotted woodpeckers on the Bad Herrenalb golf course sows wildflower seeds at the end of March.

The scout group is a guest on the small 9-hole course for the second time, which scores with its integration into the Black Forest landscape. “Last year we already built a large insect hotel with this group, it’s just going well,” says Sabine Zoller from the club board, enthusiastic about the cooperation. In fact, the boys and girls are excited about it.

Goats ensure bush clearing on the golf course

Beekeeper Torsten Schiebenes looks after the honey bees

Hubert Kleiner from BWGV explains the pruning of fruit trees

Lilli Wahli from the Black Forest Central/North Nature Park brought them ready-mixed buckets of sand and seeds. Who exactly is the seed intended for? Why do wild bees need meadows with different seeds than honey bees? “Because the wild bee is simply a lot tastier,” she explains to the children. The honey bee, according to the simple comparison, is undemanding. “Similar to the pig. You just taste everything.”

Wildflower mix with 32 species

Generating the typical seed mix for the Black Forest location is difficult. Wildflowers are mowed and threshed, the seeds mixed, then given out. But in the end the result is simply a lot better than just sowing a simple annual mix from the nearest hardware store. 53 different native and perennial types of flowers can be found in the children’s green pots. Meadow knapweed, mallow, bedstraw, meadow sage, viper’s bugloss and mullein are among them.

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Sabine Zoller , who is responsible for marketing at GC Bad Herrenalb, is enthusiastic. The topic of nature has become topical for her with the project Habitat Golf Course of the Baden-Württemberg Golf Association . In the meantime, she has discovered the great advantages of the campaign. “You do something for the environment and at the same time achieve a lot of publicity. This is perfect for the image of the golf club.”

Hubert Kleiner , who accompanies the Habitat project for the BWGV , is enthusiastic about the campaign: “We want to use the free areas on the golf courses that are not played on to promote biodiversity,” he explains. For him, the fact that the Black Forest Central/North Nature Park has now teamed up with golf clubs for the third time with a campaign for flower meadows is exemplary. Actions like these ultimately create large areas with regional flower mixtures. While the Bad Herrenalb golf club sows around 400 square meters this spring, 280,000 square meters have already come together in the Black Forest Central/North Nature Park since 2016 as part of more than 100 projects. “With the ecological and visual upgrade, we are helping to preserve the cultural landscape,” sums up Lilli Wahl. “We make the nature park colorful.”