Local legend has it that a Choctaw maiden named Cateechee
warned
settlers of an impending Cherokee invasion. The Cherokees then
chased the young woman, papoose in tow, into hiding on a ledge
underneath a waterfall, where she later escaped.

Many golfers can now find refuge from everyday hassles at the
new golf course that bears the maiden’s name.

Cateechee is no ordinary golf course.

The public course just outside Hartwell, Ga., is only the 14th
golf course in the world to earn the Audubon Cooperative
Sanctuary
Program’s “Signature Status” stamp of environmental
approval.

“We
want to reach people where they live, work and play,” said
Ronald G. Dodson, president and chairman of the board of Audubon
International, Audubon Society of New York State, Inc., at the
dedication ceremony June 28.

“Some people wonder why the Audubon Society is involved
in golf,” he said, “because they see golf as a creator
of environmental problems. We created this signature program to
work on making golf courses with sustainability and environmental
compatibility. And, we don’t give it out like candy. You have
to work for it.”

An existing golf course can’t be retrofitted to the profile
of the Audubon Signature Program. It has to be part of the plan
from the beginning.

Cateechee found a partner in planning at the University of
Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

“They called us looking for a water-monitoring
program,”
said Bill Segars, the UGA water quality coordinator. “In
our research, we came across the Audubon Signature Program. We
liked their guidelines and decided to go with that
program.”

The program is designed to encourage landowners to assess and
develop strategies for a variety of natural resources issues
during
planning and construction.

It focuses on six environmental areas:

* Wildlife conservation and habitat enhancement.

* Water conservation.

* Water quality management and monitoring.

* Integrated pest management.

* Energy efficiency.

* Waste reduction and management.

Part of the monitoring plan UGA helped develop for Cateechee
will also save the City of Hartwell big bucks.

“They will be using wastewater from the city,”
Segars
said. “The city’s facilities have reached their capacity,
and city officials were facing having to build a new wastewater
treatment plant or find a way to go to land application. This
is their answer.”

About 15 other Georgia golf courses use wastewater for
irrigation.

Once construction on an Audubon Signature course is completed,
the landowner must follow a natural resource management plan.
Annual reports are required, and biennial audits are conducted.
If the plan is not strictly followed, the golf course risks
losing
its designation. Several have.

Cateechee is the first golf club in Georgia to earn the
designation.
There are only four others in the Southeast.

Dodson said the Audubon program believes golf courses are
adopting
many of these principles because they make good economic
sense.

“You don’t want to buy and use more products than you
have to,” he said. “Our program simply gives
recognition
to those who have chosen to do it right.”

“Our participation in the Audubon Program is based on
the premises that our golf course is an asset to the community
and that golf courses make good wildlife sanctuaries,” said
Buck Workman, Cateechee’s superintendent. “We did as little
planting as we could for the greens and fairways and just left
the rest for nature to do its thing.”

Segars said the university plans to take what they have
learned
from this project and help Georgia’s golf courses become more
environmentally friendly.