Francis Campbell
The Chronicle Herald
April 26, 2021
Originally published here>
“It’s absolutely ludicrous to compare Inverness to Owls Head,” said Trider, alluding to Cabot Links in Inverness having been built on an abandoned coal mine site along the Gulf of St. Lawrence.“Owls Head, they are going to have to totally destroy the place to build the golf courses and the real estate development they are proposing there,” Trider said. “They can greenwash it as much as they like, ‘oh golf courses are organic.’
“That’s OK when you are dealing with maybe an abandoned farm or a clearcut or some place that has a capacity for golf course development. Owls Head has none of that. There is no what you really can call soil there. There’s kind of an organic duff layer that has evolved over centuries in the rock ridges, a peat-like soil.”
… “You have this evolution of this complex flora in there,” said Trider, who was a golf course superintendent for five years in Truro in his younger days.“I know what golf courses need to maintain those high standards. They don’t grow naturally. If you have three golf courses, it’s insanity is what it is. … You are mowing them all the time to keep the cutting height for the game. That means you have to keep inputting the nitrates and the nitrogen to keep them growing at the rate they need to be maintained. This is the concern about the eel grass beds and the marine areas.“Even when they tell you it can be managed, you get those occurrences where there will be heavy rainfall after the fertilizing and then you get the flush of nitrates into the ponds and wetlands.”
… Trider said there are a lot of privately owned properties along the Eastern Shore that would be better suited climatically for golf courses and feature better soil conditions and drainage.
