When a Massachusetts golf course closes, the land does not stay quiet for long. At the former Pine Grove Golf Course in Northampton, beavers moved in roughly a year before restoration crews, damming a small stream with a wall of mud and sticks six to eight feet tall. According to WAMC Northeast Public Radio, the new pond is already drawing wood ducks and swallows back to the site. Meanwhile, the city and state ecologists are ripping up pavement and reshaping the brook, in what project partners call a flagship example of golf course rewilding, a model for other retired courses. The project is also being watched as a possible blueprint for restoring other former golf courses and returning them to more natural habitats.
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