Tribal Golf Green

The attraction of the bright green against brown in the high desert landscape is undeniable.  And it's Saint Patrick's Day o'course.

The New York Times has a Travel story about Indian golf courses.  It's mostly about New Mexico.  Both photos online feature the Sandia Mountains in the background - first close, then distant. 

Interestingly, writer Bruce Selcraig does get around to talking about water in the 20th paragraph of the second page.

"Naturally, tribal golf, like all golf in parched and politically charged New Mexico, has its detractors. Environmentalists ask why Indian tribes would embrace a water-guzzling enterprise in a drought-prone region that annually averages about nine inches of rain. Courses here often use as much as a million gallons of water a day in the hottest summer months.

"To see golf on the high desert is such a painful irony for people who look to Indians for guidance on how to live in harmony with the environment," said John Horning, executive director of Forest Guardians, a Santa Fe-based group. Yet Mr. Horning conceded that golf is often just the more visible villain. "It's emerald green in an arid brown landscape," he said. "By far the largest user of water in New Mexico — about 85 percent — is agriculture, especially alfalfa. But you don't see alfalfa farmers being crucified.""

You don't see Indians being crucified either, much.

And you can't just replant a golf course in wheat or corn. 

  "Another critic, Steve Harris, director of Rio Grande Restoration, in Pilar, N.M., said: "The whole water situation in New Mexico and the West is rife with hypocrisy. The pueblos were here first, and if golf helps them get out of the third world, it's justified.""

The rest of us can just tee up. 

Coco   

Comments

[Inky Ink, Inc.]

Let them eat fairway! Fore!

[Amy]

Don't some golf courses use "gray" (waste) water? Or, could a course be covered in artificial grass? Sometimes it's good to think outside the box.