Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary

Audubon International Certified SanctuaryCranberry Highlands Golf Course is designated by Audubon International as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary

The designation affirms that the golf course has maintained a high degree of environmental quality in a variety of areas including planning, wildlife and habitat management, education, reduced chemical use, water quality management and more.

Audubon Recertification Certificate Nov 2020The late, Dave Barber, the course's GCSAA Superintendent (2000 - 2022), was instrumental in leading the facility’s environmental stewardship efforts. Audubon International notified Barber on November 6, 2020 that the golf course’s recertification had been issued. The course was initially recognized as part of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary program in 2009 and recertified two years later. The most recent certification specifically called out a program begun last year to create wildflower areas around the fairways designed to support pollinator insects – species which have been under stress in much of the country due to loss of habitat as well as other issues.

Audubon International Certified Sanctuary- 2009In her letter to Barber, Audubon Program Specialist Allie Smith cited Cranberry Highlands’ “superb outreach and education efforts, including your involvement with the Boy Scouts to build bird houses".

Cranberry Highlands maintains a balanced environment in which golfers and wildlife live and play in harmony. Insect control, for example, is accomplished by providing homes to birds for whom insects are a diet staple. A growing variety of owls, butterflies, bats, hawks, deer, amphibians, fish and small animals now live in a natural ecosystem where wildlife and golfers coexist.