Welcoming landscaping at Ironwood Golf Course in Byron Center, Mich. Photos courtesy of Kim Davidson
The tangible rewards of winning Audubon International’s annual BioBlitz competition might not be much.
The intangibles, on the other hand, mean plenty to at least one of its most recent winners.
“You know, you do it, and you think, ‘This was a lot of work,’” says Kim Davidson, horticulturist at Ironwood Golf Course in Byron Center, Mich., “and you get a little plaque in the mail. But you know what? We’re doing this to educate ourselves and to educate our golfers about all the organisms the golf course benefits besides us. In that sense, it’s a good thing, and I think people appreciate it.”
Ironwood GC, a family-owned public course just outside Grand Rapids, Mich., won the 2025 Biodiversity Award as part of BioBlitz, Audubon International’s annual one-day competition to document all the species found on golf courses worldwide.
Ironwood GC chronicled 409 species over the designated 24-hour period. All told, BioBlitz participants reported 1,290 species —â¯797 plants, 204 insects, 135 birds, 66 fungi and lichens, 29 mammals, 22 reptiles, 16 amphibians, 11 mollusks and 10 fish. Results were compiled and confirmed by Audubon International’s team of environmental specialists.
This was Ironwood GC’s fourth year participating.
A monarch butterfly on purple coneflower at Ironwood Golf Course
“The first year we did it, I just saw an email about it and thought, ‘This is right up my alley. We can handle this,’” says Davidson, a 12-year GCSAA Associate member whose late father and grandfather purchased the course two years after it was built and ensured it would stay in the family for its now-50-year history. “It was really fun, and it really opened my eyes to how many different species there are out here. You kind of take it for granted. But once you start counting and making lists, it’s pretty awesome.”
Davidson says most of the species IDs were made by her and her small staff.
“Especially the first few years, it was mainly just me and our grounds crew,” she says. “I just told them, ‘Keep your eyes open. If you see something new, let me know.’”
Through the years, Davidson has seen several “somethings new.”
“The first year we did it, I saw a flying squirrel,” she says. “I went to check our nesting boxes for bluebirds, and it popped out at me. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s a flying squirrel.’ I’d never seen one out here before. That was very cool. We’ve got foxes, turkeys —â¯typical Michigan wildlife — but it’s still very neat to see them. As far as birds go, we have sandhill cranes fly over. Right now, the Baltimore orioles are going crazy. Eastern kingbirds, purple martins. This year we didn’t see them the day of (the BioBlitz), but we had two ospreys.”
Davidson does involve her golfers in the species-ID game. She promotes the event on Facebook and on the course’s website about a week before it starts. On the big day, she makes scorecards available for golfers to tick off species they encounter during their rounds.
“But we’re not a private club, so we have different people here every day,” she says. “We don’t make a big to-do about it. We just say, ‘We’re taking part in this. We’d love to have you join us.’”
A green heron spotted at the golf course.
The timing of the BioBlitz win was especially significant for Davidson, since it came just before her father, David Bradley, died unexpectedly of cancer last October.
“It was quite sudden,” said Davidson, whose mother, Joy Bradley, still runs the clubhouse. “It’s been …â¯challenging. But we’re in a new chapter here with the business. I do think the timing of all this is ironic. I think my dad might have had something to do with it.”
No doubt dad, an Army veteran who served as the club’s self-taught superintendent, would be proud to see Ironwood GC continue to thrive.
“We’re pretty much full sunup to sundown,” Davidson says. “We’ve kind of made our niche.”
Part of that niche is making sure Ironwood GC golfers know a little about the environment around them.
“I have a whiteboard outside the main door to our clubhouse,” Davidson says. “It says, ‘Welcome to Ironwood. Please replace divots.’ Then I have a little write-up about what’s happening in nature on our course. I get a lot of comments from people who enjoy seeing that. I’ve found golfers …â¯most of them are nature-oriented people. They like being outside. They appreciate the flora and fauna you can see on a golf course. It’s part of the golf experience.”
Andrew Hartsock is GCM’s editor-in-chief.