Commitment to the Environment

Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program (ACSP)

In spring of 2016 the Ottawa Hunt & Golf Club was recertified as an Audubon Cooperative Golf Sanctuary for the third time.

The ACSP is an award-winning education and certification program that helps golf courses protect our environment and preserve the natural heritage of the game of golf by helping people enhance the valuable natural areas and wildlife habitats that golf courses provide, improve efficiency, and minimize potentially harmful impacts of golf operations, the ACSP serves as a vital resource for golf courses.

Our best practices for the environment include:

• Leaving as much of the property as possible in its natural state
• Maintaining 12 on-site tree nurseries
• Selecting plants native to the Ottawa area where possible to restore and enhance the natural landscape
• Incorporating enhanced food sources, nesting sites or den development for wildlife
• Sponsoring an annual field day for local students that incorporates the Club’s environmental stewardship plan and bird-house building from lumber harvested from golf course trees
• Maintaining over 70 nesting boxes and 3 Purple Martin houses
• Installing a weather station to determine water requirements for the golf course in support of water conservation
• Recycling over 350 meters of compost, generated by the Club annually, in the tree planting program and other landscape projects
• Using cultural practices to improve turf quality and minimize chemical use
• Significant testing of the watershed to ensure water run off quality is maintained and more often improved