Our choice to buy on a golf course for the privacy out back is now in question after reading about the spraying ; just wondering if the wind is blowing a certain way, does it get into the lanai or home area?
Or, is it not a concern?
Have been following "resales" on golf courses, with land enough for a pool/birdcage.
We've been told NOT to buy near water, on water or near a nature preserve, thus the below researched newspaper article, which obviously was a long time ago, as the population of The Villages hasn't been 17,000 souls in a very long time............it all gets very complicated.
Can someone answer with regard to WHO DOES THE SPRAYING and HOW MUCH SPRAYING OF THE pesticides applied to the golf courses there is???
How often do they spray?
Everyone knows they are carcinogens........but it seemed back in the late '90s they really didn't know the exact amount which was applied??????
For those concerned with healthy diets and lifestyles, one would think they'd be concerned about "spraying"..........
Thanks in advance.........also, would anyone "share" which area of TV they think is the healthiest choice, even if it's away from a golf course....meaning not close to one.
Is Next-to-nature Sales Pitch A Sham?
The Villages Preserves Include Links Laced With Pesticides, Power Line Land
September 6, 1998|By Robert Sargent Jr. and Ramsey Campbell of The Sentinel Staff
LADY LAKE - Cutting through the suburban sprawl of The Villages' dense forest of neighborhoods, golf courses and shopping centers are the homes of its original denizens.
Burrowing owls, gopher tortoises and Sherman fox squirrels - all rare species of wildlife - live alongside humans in the massive development of more than 17,000 retirees.
Normally when development bulldozes large areas of wildlife habitat, planners set aside remote wetlands or other unsellable land - buffered from the human activity - for the displaced critters to live.
But The Villages came up with a unique scheme that blends nature with asphalt and cinderblock.
The results: A narrow ribbon of land under the high tension power lines that run through the development becomes a wildlife preserve.
So do the golf course roughs that are sprinkled throughout the retirement community.
And they're all named after the developer, his family and his business associates.
Some of the animals, like the large Sherman fox squirrel, have proved amazingly resourceful in adapting to their new environment.
``You have to watch for them ... sometimes they'll rob you blind if you have fruit, crackers or other food on your golf cart,'' said Pete Wahl, administrator for The Villages' governmental arm.
The Villages touts its unique next-to-nature atmosphere in its sales pitch to northern retirees looking for Southern-style living.
But wildlife experts aren't so sure the powerline habitats and golf course greens are friendly environs for the rare species that cohabit in The Villages' world.
Golf courses typically are heavily treated with chemical pesticides and herbicides, which can be fatal to birds and small mammals.
``We find racoons who live near golf courses are stunted and sickly,'' said Donna Morris, who runs a wildlife recovery center in Lady Lake. ``Birds don't do well. Even reptiles don't like living around a golf course.''
She blames the overuse of pesticides - the same type used by many homeowners to keep their lawns lush and green.
And high-tension power lines can be death traps, particularly for migratory birds, said Sandy Brogan, a spokesman for the Florida Audubon Society in Winter Park.
Though both golf courses and power line corridors attract wild animals because of their water hazards and open spaces, they are not good areas for wildlife preserves, she said.
The towering high tension power lines pose a threat in the air, and the pesticide-laden golf greens threaten from the ground.
How The Villages came to create these ``preserves'' is a story with a twist.
The developer didn't intend to provide wildlife habitat - it was designed as a retirement paradise for people. Lots of people.
More than 17,000 people live on 9,500 acres of the development that sprawls across northern Lake and Sumter counties. The community has a half dozen golf courses and a huge commercial and entertainment district. Plans call for a hospital and medical complex.
This year, the developer is expected to be the largest single-site builder in the nation.
But before construction started on a former cow pasture, wildlife experts discovered a concentration of burrowing owls and other rare species and required the developer to provide habitat before building.
Rather than abandon a significant portion of the planned development to nature, The Villages incorporated 900 acres of wildlife preserves - the Sharon L. Morse Owl Preserve, the H. Gary Morse Wildlife Preserve, the D.W. Mathews Family Wildlife Preserve and the Richard L. Murray Wildlife Preserve - into its maze of homes, buildings and golfing greens.
The burrowing owls, for example, are allowed to nest in a fenced field separating a new golf course from homes that border the property on two sides. The property fronts Morse Boulevard and the closest burrow is about 20 feet from the pavement.
The dozen or so burrows are staked off and surrounded by barbed wire, which a Villages environmental consultant said is there to keep cattle from stomping on the owls - even though cattle are long gone from the site.
There are no trees or cover in the grassy field, and that could prove a problem for owls trying to hunt for the small rodents that make up their diet, said Pam Bowen, who is preparing Florida's first burrowing owl census.
But she said the lack of cover also means the owls can see any predators, like hawks that might be trying to feed on them.
The Villages has tried to strike a balance between development and the needs of wildlife, said Bruce Day, principal planner with the Withlacoochee Regional Planning Council, which oversaw the Sumter County side of the development.
``The problem is that you can't ask the animals,'' Day said.
Village officials, however, say their wildlife plan works.
``The Villages has successfully developed golf courses in a manner that provides suitable habitat for many different wildlife species,'' said development spokesman Bob Mervine.
A sign behind the post office describes the rare birds, mammals and reptiles that live side-by-side with the afternoon golfers in The Villages - gopher tortoises, burrowing owls, kestrels, snowy herons, Sherman fox squirrels.
A biologist from the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission visits the area twice a year to make an annual report, but there is little meaningful oversight. The information he collects - including population counts of wildlife - is provided by the developer.
While there is a plan on paper to limit pesticides on the golf course lands adjacent to the wildlife preserves, Village officials said they hire outsiders to do much of the greens maintenance work and are not certain how much pesticide is applied a year or how it is applied.
Despite the concerns, wildlife officials say any sort of wildlife preserve with green space is preferable to asphalt.