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Denver Botanic Gardens helps make golf courses more sustainable

Urban areas are becoming increasingly important as we look to conserve and restore wildlife and ecosystems amidst climate change and urbanization. Golf courses are one of the largest open spaces in urban areas so Denver Botanic Gardens’ scientists, led by Associate Director of Climate Reslilience Rebecca Hufft, partnered with the Colorado Golf Association to help improve wildlife habitat and support native plant communities at CommonGround Golf Course in Denver and Aurora, Colorado. Initiatives include native landscaping, tree succession planning and wildlife habitat improvements and monitoring. Our work will be a model for collaboration between golf courses and botanic gardens across the world.

The partnership began in 2022 with a floristic survey across CommonGround and during subsequent summers, the Gardens’ has been testing the effectiveness of a low-cost, minimalsite- preparation technique to seed native plant species. Existing golf course equipment was used to harrow and aerate the soil, allowing for minimal disturbance. Some of the seeded species
germinated and have persisted for three growing seasons despite no or minimal ground preparation or weed removal prior to seeding.

While the golf course is already home to deer, coyotes, hawks and other wildlife, the Gardens aims to increase native plant diversity to greatly increase healthy habitat for wildlife, especially for pollinators.

Rebecca Huft says, “Pollinator observations showed that even with minimal native forbs (flowering plants other than grasses) increases in the trial plots, there was a rise in bee and other pollinator 2 visits.” She adds, “Surprisingly, even with the overall low density of plants that emerged from the seeding treatment, there was still a significant increase in pollinators observed relative to the unseeded trial plots.”

This shows that even a modest increase in forbs can improve pollinator numbers. This relatively easy and inexpensive technique can be used to improve pollinator habitat in areas where additional site preparation is not possible or as a temporary restoration solution.

In 2025, the team launched a native prairie project at CommonGround to experiment with different turf removal and maintenance techniques to restore native grasslands and improve wildlife habitat on not only this golf course but as a model for other sites.

In the coming years, we will continue to monitor the trial plots to help inform future plantings and sustainable land management at CommonGround and other golf courses. We also plan on expanding the research to other sites, including similar trials at our Chatfield Farms location.

About Denver Botanic Gardens: Green inside and out, Denver Botanic Gardens was founded in 1951 and is considered one of the top botanical gardens in the United States and a pioneer in water conservation. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Gardens’ living collections encompass specimens from the tropics to the tundra, showcasing a plant palette chosen to thrive in Colorado’s semi-arid climate. The Gardens is a dynamic, 24-acre urban oasis in the heart of the city, offering unforgettable opportunities to flourish with unique garden experiences for the whole family – as well as world-class education and plant conservation research programs. Additional sites extend this experience throughout the Front Range: Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms is a 700-acre native plant refuge with an active farm in Jefferson County; Mount Bue Sky is a high-altitude trail and interpretive site on the Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway. The Gardens also manages programming at Plains Conservation Center in Aurora. For more information, visit us online at www.botanicgardens.org.