More courses, Pine Needles among them, are coming on board and joining wildlife programs.

"THIS PROGRAM is not about regulations. It's about partnerships. It's not about mandates. It's about incentives -- architects, developers, golfers and wildlife experts working together."

With these words, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt summarized an agreement, known as the Safe Harbor Program, signed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club during last month's U.S. Women's Open. This initiative, officially known as the Sandhills Conservation Plan, guarantees that private landowners, such as golf courses, will not be subject to restrictions under the Endangered Species Act after they succeed in attracting threatened species to their land and later decide to convert the property to alternative uses.

The federally endangered species in question in the Sandhills of North Carolina, where Pine Needles is located, is a bird called the red-cockaded woodpecker. This seven-inch-long bird excavates nesting cavities in live pine trees usually more than a century old. RCWs thrive in a golf course environment because they prefer the open pines often found on courses throughout the area, compared to dense forests with significant underbrush.

More than a dozen of the approximately 40 golf courses in the Pinehurst area have enrolled to date, with the Pinehurst Resort and Country Club leading the way by becoming the first to enroll in the program last year ("A Program for the Birds?," August 1995). In excess of 20,000 acres of privately owned land, much of it golf course acreage, now fall under the Safe Harbor Program.

"What I'd like to do is talk about two of my favorite subjects, woodpeckers and golfers, and the very happy conjunction of the two and the partnership that is now emerging between the owners and managers of golf courses and the surrounding natural values of the land," Babbitt said during the signing ceremony.

"Golf courses, at their best, are very closely designed and related to the natural environment and the landscape. And indeed the extraordinary draw of the golf course is a function both of its challenge to the player and the way that it reveals and relates to the landscape. And what we have found here in the Sandhills of North Carolina means that good golf courses are also excellent woodpecker habitats. It ought to be possible to design and operate golf courses in a way that actually enhances wildlife values. An important lesson that I think every person who's interested in the game of golf can take all over this United States of America is that the presence of golf courses can actually increase the amount of wildlife."

"We at Pine Needles are thrilled to become partners in the Safe Harbor Program," added club general manager Kelly Miller. "The woodpeckers were here long before we got here, and hopefully what we can do is enhance their living land right out here, provide some beauty, and despite me getting behind those pines every once in a while and wishing I could move them, I'm certainly glad that they're out there."

Dr. Peter Stangel of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, who coordinates the newest USGA-supported environmental initiative, Wildlife Links, also attended the signing ceremony and emphasized the important role golf courses can play in providing wildlife habitat.

"Golf courses comprise more than 1.5 million acres, and about 70 percent of this total represents rough and non-play areas," he said. "There's a tremendous potential on these non-play areas for wildlife conservation, and that's exactly what programs like Safe Harbor and Wildlife Links are set up to do. We recently awarded the first three Wildlife Links grants that will result in a database for wildlife management on golf courses, as well as manuals for managing birds and viable biological wetlands on golf courses. This is an impressive commitment by the USGA, and I think the future is very bright for wildlife on golf courses."

-- Marty Parkes