Compared to many public recreation facilities, disc golf courses are relatively inexpensive and low-impact – they can even have a positive impact, environmentally speaking. Just like infrastructure for any outdoor pursuit, though, disc golf courses can still affect their surroundings.
At some courses (especially those with high traffic volumes), soil compaction and erosion can become a concern. Here we explore how to A) plan courses in ways that minimize compaction and erosion risks and B) help already-impacted courses heal.
Get a full overview of these topics by reading the whole post, or jump to a section you're interested in by clicking or tapping it below:
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- What are soil compaction and erosion?
- Designing disc golf courses to avoid compaction and erosion
- How players can change their habits to promote soil health
- Canada's busiest disc golf course almost closed due to erosion and compaction – how it turned things around
What Are Soil Compaction & Erosion?
Soil erosion and soil compaction are both types of soil degradation, but they're not the same thing.
When particles of soil are removed by natural or manmade forces such as water, wind, footsteps, or vehicles, that's soil erosion. It's more likely to occur on steep slopes because that's where soil is more prone to being continually washed or pushed downhill. As parts of courses erode, it can become difficult (and possibly dangerous) for players to navigate them, and it can imperil plants that live in the area.
Soil compaction happens when soil particles are pushed too closely together by outside forces such as steady foot traffic or vehicles. Compaction on disc golf courses typically happens where foot traffic is most intense and consistent, often near baskets and tee pads.
As soil compacts, it becomes less porous, making it difficult for water and nutrients to penetrate the surface. Plants have a hard time surviving in compacted soil because those necessities can't reach their roots. Soil compaction also makes erosion issues worse as all the unabsorbed water flows downhill, steadily eating away at slopes.
Restoring areas that have experienced high levels of soil degradation isn't cheap. If disc golf appears to be the main cause of such damage, communities' decision-makers may feel that permanently removing a course is the simplest and least expensive way to solve the problem – especially if local disc golfers aren't open to hearing and addressing their concerns.
Thankfully, there are proactive strategies that designers, volunteers, and players can all employ to help prevent soil degradation at disc golf courses as well as create the opportunity for already-impacted areas to heal.
Design Principles to Mitigate Erosion & Compaction at Disc Golf Courses
To learn more about designing and maintaining disc golf courses in ways that prioritize soil health, we talked to two experts whose jobs revolve around building sustainable outdoor recreation facilities.
One is disc golf course designer and trained landscape architect Darrell Bankes, president of TinLid Disc Golf. He's designed many well-loved tracks, including two that appear in our post "11 Best Disc Golf Courses at Active Traditional Golf Courses" and one, Haute Goat, that UDiscers have rated among the five best disc golf courses in the Canadian province of Ontario.
The second is Tylor Brackett, trail specialist for the International Mountain Bicycling Association. While at first glance disc golf and mountain biking can seem like very different sports, they actually have a lot in common: Both frequently take place in multi-use parks with free or very affordable entry. As such, they both rely on volunteers for maintenance and upkeep – volunteers who are ideally well-aware of the potential for soil degradation issues and armed with the know-how to mitigate them.
When it came to erosion, Brackett and Bankes focused on two big themes: water and slopes.
Bankes said course designers should avoid adding course infrastructure in wet areas and on steep slopes as much as possible, and Brackett emphasized that it's important to ensure water has a clear place to drain by creating channels in low areas and along fall lines.
"Make sure your drains are clear," said Brackett. "Where we put low spots for water to exit we need to make sure water can flow through the area. We've been exaggerating our drains a bit more to help with this. If you're having drainage issues, backfill them with gravel and rocks to help support them. You can rake out the trails or fairways and take the rocks to your drains."
For these methods to be effective, however, the vast majority of people using a facility need to remain in the areas protected by such infrastructure. Creating clear, well-marked trails is the best way to ensure that happens.
"Signage is a big thing – if you develop a clear trail, you can keep people on it," said Bankes. "If you don't, people will find their own way and make three different paths from hole 15 to 16. You just need to make it more difficult to go off-trail than to stay on it. Use downed trees to make the trail crystal clear. People want a path to follow."
Brackett said that when his team builds a trail, they, too, use down limbs as well as rocks to indicate where mountain bikers should and shouldn't go.
While disc golfers will ultimately walk to wherever their disc has landed, using such elements to make obvious paths off of tees, near baskets, and between holes can keep players' impact on soil as small as possible. It's best to do this as part of a course's initial construction, but doing it retroactively is still beneficial.
"Trail creep can get wide and expansive," said Brackett. "Locate what looks like the most used trail you have and try to funnel people through this spot. Use logs and sticks to help point players in the right direction."
Along with using visual cues to manage traffic flows, Brackett and Bankes both pointed out that natural elements like mulch and pine straw can be effective weapons against soil degradation. They provide a cushion between the soil and players' feet and reduce water runoff.
Bankes advocates for mulching heavily trodden-upon areas. Brackett and his team typically utilize whatever materials are locally available and also plant native species to help slow down erosion and compaction.
"If you're in a leafed or pined area, that's an easy substrate that can be reused to cover up unwanted expansion," said Brackett. "It helps the soil recover from foot traffic and maintain water. Another great way to stop or slow soil erosion on a fresh trail or unwanted social paths is to plant native grass seeds or flower seeds. Getting that root base started will help hold that soil together and slow down that water flow to reduce erosion."
Just like disc golfers need to rest and recover after a long round, courses sometimes need a break, too. This can be facilitated by creating multiple layouts or using multiple pin positions.
"Greens are the toughest part to keep healthy," said Bankes. "Courses should use more basket locations to rotate for repair and even remove baskets to make layouts fundamentally unplayable."
Note that having multiple basket positions doesn't require buying extra baskets. Many courses install multiple sleeves that allow them to easily relocate baskets. In areas with few courses, basket rotation is done more with player enjoyment in mind than soil protection – though it can enhance both.
All the measures discussed above take time and effort, but they ensure that disc golf courses can have long lifespans with minimal negative effects on the environments that host them. Brackett said that in the mountain biking world, this sort of work has to happen for trails to continue to exist.
"A lot of our trail systems' sustainability is really manageability," said Brackett. "It's impossible for a trail to just sustain itself. They require regular maintenance and upkeep."
Player Education Can Help
Both Bankes and Brackett stressed that a major component to keeping trails and courses in good shape is educating people on appropriate and inappropriate times to play and ride.
"In general, it is strongly advised to keep traffic off trails during or after a rain," said Brackett. "Even during freeze or thaw times of the year, try to get out for your activity while the ground is still frozen. This helps prevent unwanted trail damage."
This advice is directly applicable to disc golf courses as players can do much more damage to the soil and landscape during these same wet and freeze/thaw periods. Some courses have found the best option is to pull baskets during particularly challenging times of year while others may find that educating players and clubs is sufficient.
"The real change will occur when people stop playing disc golf on wet, nasty days," said Bankes. "A big problem is there's typically no one in public places to manage closures and openings, so this requires a change in player attitude."
It is never easy to skip out on hitting the course, but there are frequently alternative options to scratch the disc golf itch, and Bankes reminds players that closures are routine in many other recreational activities.
"Ball golf courses are closed on rainy, wet days, and [in the northern hemisphere] you typically can't play ball golf between November and March," said Bankes. "Public parks don't let you use ball diamonds or soccer fields in the winter or on rainy days either."
The type of course one plays on during inclement weather matters as well, and more and more courses are developing winter layouts to help reduce player impact.
"When I run winter programming, it's on the easiest layout that avoids steep hills," said Bankes. "Playing during the winter is much tougher on courses, and once it's wrecked, it is so hard to get it back."
For courses that do want to stay open as much as possible, there are ways to help the course handle traffic during wet and freeze/thaw periods, but they require extra time and resources.
"A way of creating a year round trail would be to cap your existing trail with gravel or cover highly trafficked areas with a fine gravel or small rock," said Brackett. "Pavers also work in highly trafficked areas to create a hard surface to walk on as opposed to soil."
Saving Canada's Busiest Disc Golf Course
Baker Park in Calgary, Alberta, sees more traffic than any other disc golf course in Canada. With over 26,500 rounds logged last year in UDisc (and doubtless thousands more not scored in the app), it has heavy traffic year-round with peaks in the summer months.
But Baker Park's popularity was almost its demise as all those feet were compacting soil to a point that was seriously threatening the health of a lot of plant life in and around the course. Luckily, the local parks department and disc golf club came together to find solutions.
"Initially, there wasn't a lot of dialogue between the disc golf community and city parks management," said James Koizumi, President of Disc Golf Calgary. "We were in jeopardy of losing the course because of the damage it was having on the property. They loved seeing people use the park and watching the usage increase. But if it can't be done in a sustainable way, they have to shut it down."
In Calgary, every significant tree is catalogued, inventoried, and receives a monetary value. Large, old, and rare specimens receive the highest values, with Calgary's urban forest having an estimated value of around $1.1 billion USD or $1.5 billion in Canadian dollars. This inventory demonstrates Calgary's seriousness about protecting and conserving its trees. When Baker Park's disc golf traffic started threatening them, the city took notice.
"Soil compaction around tree root structures is really consequential," said Koizumi. "It is tough on tree growth as it impacts the absorption of water, nutrients, etc. As the course usage was getting higher, many of its trees were really struggling."
While simply removing the course would have been the easiest option, the parks department saw the draw of disc golf and the recreational benefits it was providing to many of its city's residents. This and the cooperation of Disc Golf Calgary encouraged the city to commit both money and time to pouring 21 additional tee pads and making an entire secondary layout at Baker Park that allows impacted areas time to recover. Particularly problematic parts of the course were redesigned.
Koizumi stressed that the most fun or picturesque course layout is oftentimes not the best option when it comes to environmental sustainability, and the course's longevity is more important than a cool line or nice visual.
"The best disc golf course is one that's going to be around for a long time," said Koizumi. "You may just love hole six, but if it's causing issues, it can jeopardize the whole course. It may look amazing and be a fun shot shape, but you don't have to tuck the basket under the tree limbs where the roots will get trampled on and the soil will be compacted."
Along with moving baskets away from trees that were taking a beating, a number of holes were redesigned to improve safety and reduce risk. During the course redesign, the Baker Park maintenance team planted a number of new trees and bushes, resodded compacted areas, and added protection to frequently-hit trees. Today, they routinely add mulch around tee pads and baskets and rotate the layout when natural cues indicate it's time for the current layout to get a rest.
"We went from a position of possibly losing the course for sustainability issues to finding a way to keep it thriving and presenting disc golf opportunities for a lot of people every year," said Koizumi. "All the credit goes to the parks department for seeing the long-term vision and stepping up and putting in funds and resources. Disc golfers need to trust the expertise of the people who manage our parks. Local players have some insight, but these people are the experts."
As you might have noticed when we ticked off the things that helped Baker Park stay available for disc golfers, they lined up almost precisely with the advice from Bankes and Brackett in the previous two sections. And if they can work for a place that sees more traffic than all but a handful of courses in the world, they can work almost anywhere.
