by Andrew Benitez, 2019 AT&T Byron Nelson Junior Reporter
How do you “see” a golf course? Do you go just to see the players? Or to view the nature?
On May 7th, I went to the Trinity Forest Golf Club with Ann Sansone, a Texas Master Naturalist. It was fun, and well, I didn’t expect that she would stop and talk about every flower and blade of grass.
GUESS WHAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????????????????????????
I learned that:
- Trinity Forest Golf Club is built on top of an old landfill.
- Dallas is part of the Blackland Prairie. The Blackland Prairie is a grassland with black soil that is part of the USA Great Plains. When Miss Sansone talked about this, I remembered learning about this at Camp with one of my teachers, Mr. Holm. He told us how Dallas used to have bison, tall grass, American Indians – a lot different from today.
- Today, people have planted native species at the golf course to try and preserve nature.
Sansone told us about all different kinds of grasses, such as buffalo grass, switchgrass, and rabbit ear grass. This was interesting! All I knew about previously was common house grass! Some grass is downright foofy!
Touring the golf course with Miss Sansone, my eyes have adjusted. Now I catch the different kinds of flowers and grasses easier. At one point, we were standing in buffalo grass, and I started stomping on it like a buffalo because Sansone told us that’s how the seeds got spread. We all laughed!
We also saw lots of butterflies. Black swallowtails and cute little yellow ones too. Most were busy getting nectar from flowers, but we saw two yellow ones on the ground. Sansone said they were “mud-puddling.” This is when butterflies get necessary nutrients out of minerals in mud or dirt. My reaction to that? “Sick!”
All in all, the day was great! It was our first day at the golf course, and we had a lot to learn about getting from one place to another. Every step of the way, Miss Sansone will tell you to stop and smell the flowers.
