A GOLF club has been recognised for creating the best environment project for its living wall at the Golf Environment Awards.

Richmond Golf Club’s greenkeeper Anthony McGeough and his team has scooped the prize at the recent STRI (Sports Turf Research Institute) Golf Environment Awards at Hotel Du Vin in Harrogate.

The awards highlight the UK’s best conservation projects being developed and managed by golf courses and reward the individuals that are making real improvements to their local environment and quality of life for the future.

As a result of seeing species such as hares, buzzards, jays, deer and woodpeckers, the greens team had a chance to create a living wall that would help to support the existing wildlife and hopefully provide more favourable conditions for less familiar species, while also producing a project that would be visually appealing to the members.

The opportunity for the project arose when creating a new eighth tee.

Mr McGeough said: “Working with a very small budget of just £70 we started thinning the trees that line the hole, cut them into 90cm lengths and began stacking them in compartments made from fence posts.

“Once the living wall was completed we capped the lengths of timber off with turf, laid green side down, soil was then placed on top of the turf and seeded with a bee friendly wildflower mixture.

“To further enhance the living wall we used all the branches from the pruned trees to create windrows which act as wildlife corridors for small animals and these run the full length of the woodland and link to the living wall. Insect and hedgehog hotels and a small colony of bumble bees were placed to take full advantage of the wild flowers.”