Fort Meade?s plans for a new golf course to help fund the fort?s youth services is running into opposition from the Sierra Club, which says the course will create runoff and destroy a forest.
“Between the availability of innumerous golf courses in the county and the loss of forested land, it makes no sense for the federal government to raze this land,” said Anne Arundel chapter chairman David Prosten.
But Fort Meade?s commanding officer, Col. Kenneth McCreedy, said a 360-acre golf course near Routes 32 and 175 is a beneficial use of land that includes a capped landfill and forest. The land is owned by the fort.
“I think a golf course is a responsible way to preserve the land,” McCreedy said. “We want to preserve as much of the wetland and the forested buffers.”
The current 36-hole facility in the center of the installation will be razed to build offices for the incoming work force because of the Base Realignment and Closure influx. A new course is not needed for solely recreational purposes, as golf revenues are the main funding source for the youth services.
“Military personnel pay only a fraction of these services, and the golf revenues makes up the difference,” said McCreedy, who could not provide an amount for the anticipated revenues.
Prosten pointed to the recently released environmental impact study reviewing Fort Meade?s growth that said the removal of trees and wetlands in the area will have a “significant impact” to the local watershed that leads to the Chesapeake Bay.
“I would propose there are many other ways to fund those children that don?t entail cutting down forests,” he said. “If Fort Meade wants to be a good neighbor in this community, it has to cut back on its plans.”
The decision to build will ultimately rest in the hands of federal officials.
“In the post-9/11 world, we have to put our sensitive facilities in the middle of the fort,” McCreedy said. “This is a hefty issue … and we have to balance the competing interests.”
