Fresh from the Fairways

We’ve all been there: you hit a great drive that only just runs off the fairway, only to find your ball nestled behind a fallen log or a gnarled old branch. While it might seem like a frustrating, untidy hazard, the deadwood you see around Richmond Park Golf Course is deliberately left in place. It’s not a sign of neglect; it’s a crucial part of what makes our surroundings a world-class nature reserve.

Our course is an integral part of Richmond Park and the very same principles that govern the wider park apply here on the fairways and in the rough. One of the most important of these is the preservation of dead and decaying wood. We work closely with our colleagues at The Royal Parks to ensure that our management practices align with their expert conservation strategies for this valuable landscape.

A Five-Star Hotel for Wildlife

What looks like a simple dead branch is, in fact, a bustling ecosystem. This deadwood is a vital habitat for countless species, particularly the insects known as saproxylic invertebrates. These creatures, including the magnificent but rare stag beetle, depend entirely on decaying wood for their lifecycle.

Richmond Park is home to over 1,000 species of beetle, many of which are nationally scarce. A single handful of rotten wood from inside an old tree can contain nearly 300 individual insects. This rich insect life in turn provides essential food for the park’s bats, woodpeckers, and other birds.

The Wisdom of Ancient Trees

Many of the park’s ancient oak trees are over 700 years old. As these veterans age, they naturally hollow out and shed limbs. This isn’t a sign of sickness, but a clever survival strategy that makes them lighter and more stable, allowing them to live for centuries longer. The cavities they create become sought-after nesting sites for owls, parakeets, and bats—a natural alternative to the bird boxes we so often have to put up in less wild landscapes.

As naturalist Steven Falk notes, we shouldn’t think of deadwood as “bad or dangerous – all that deadness has a lot of life in it.” By leaving it where it falls, we allow nature’s recycling process to continue, supporting a complex web of life that has existed here for centuries.

So, the next time you have to chip over a fallen log, take a moment to appreciate it. That “obstacle” is a sign of a healthy, thriving ecosystem. Playing a round at Richmond Park Golf Course means sharing a space with living history and helping to protect a precious natural habitat for generations to come.