ARIZONA DAILY STAR (Tucson) 21 August 05 Oro Valley resort is a paradise for both rattlesnakes, golfers - Developers, biologists team up (Anne Minard)
Howard Olsen was minding his own business at his new house on an Oro Valley golf resort last week when he stepped on what may be the resort's most unique course hazard.
"I took another step and looked behind me, and it was a snake," he said.
Olsen grabbed a camera and snapped a picture before calling a University of Arizona snake researcher he'd met the day before. Melissa Amarello came over and moved the 2-foot tiger rattlesnake just off his property.
"It looks like we're going to have to commingle over on the 16th hole," Olsen joked on Thursday, seemingly unfazed, as he warmed up on the putting green.
The resort, Stone Canyon Golf Club, is commanding the attention of UA researchers because wildlife - particularly tiger rattlers - seems to be thriving, not disappearing, as the development advances.
Resort developers have teamed up with the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the UA to design signs throughout the golf course and in each cart that point out the healthy wildlife populations - and advise members to avoid risky behaviors like reaching into bushes after golf balls. And so far, neither the resort staff nor the residents seem bothered by the snakes - or the team of researchers studying them - creeping around the property in the dark of night.
"A lot of developers won't work with biologists because they're afraid we'll dig up an endangered species or something," said Jeff Smith, one of the field biologists on the project. The Stone Canyon staff has been different, he said, "they leave a golf cart out for us every day."
Todd Huizinga, the golf director, has only one fear about the research: From a marketing perspective, he hopes people won't shy away from a place rumored to be teeming with rattlesnakes. In fact, golfers say they rarely see them, probably because the critters are most active at night. Olsen says he collected 6,000 wayward balls last year and only saw one snake.
But the UA study, now in its fourth year, has so far shown that the snakes are abundant, they're well-fed and they're begetting higher-than-normal numbers of offspring.
And the bumper crop doesn't seem to be limited to snakes. The researchers are keeping detailed notes on seemingly high numbers of javelina, quail, roadrunners, owls, bats and a whole host of other reptiles and amphibians that seem to be drawn by the easy availability of food and water - and the as-yet seldom-traveled roads.
For the most part, that's a source of pride for Stone Canyon.
When it comes to golf courses, "the normal thought is everything gets killed off and won't come around," said Dick Maes, the project manager for the development. "That's far from what happens."
Matt Goode is a research scientist with the UA's natural-resources department and the lead researcher on the snake work. He says it's still possible that, as houses are built on the hundreds of lots surrounding the golf course, the development could become an "ecological trap," luring critters in only to kill them on the roads. But he says the fact that the research is taking place at all is hugely progressive.
"It's pretty groundbreaking stuff, in my opinion," he said, adding that the work represents one way to bridge the gap between developers and environmentalists. "Rather than fighting against it, which doesn't work, let's try to get in there and make something happen."
Oro Valley resort is a paradise for both rattlesnakes, golfers - Developers, biologists team up