Winter Projects

One of the projects we have been busy with this winter is the removal of Buckthorn and Boxelder trees to the right of the Out of Bounds markers as you leave the Red tee on #9 and walk over to the Driving Range.

You can see the before picture below.

Below is the after photo.

The goal with this project was to remove the evasive Buckthorn and to open the hole up and increase the pace of play.  Now if your ball is hit to the right it will not be knocked down into the Out of Bounds.  You will also be able to see the flight of your ball and be able to find it quicker. It will be much easier to know whether you ball is still in play or not.

Willow on the Corner #8

This video is of the removal of the large Willow on the edge of the pond on#8.  It is taken from the tee so it is a little harder to see than I expected.  It didn't help that it was so cold I was shaking.  Hopefully as I get accustom to adding video we can make a few tweaks to make it better. 

Tree Competition

This series of pictures illustrates what happens to trees that are planted too close to one another as they mature. 



In the first picture you can see trees that are bending (this would have been even more apparent if I had taken a picture more in line with the ground). These trees are seeking light which is necessary to produce the food the tree needs to survive. This is a group of trees to the left of the 11th green.   

These trees are to the left of the 3rd green.  You can see the 2 trees on the right are growing to the north and one of the trees on the left is growing to the south.

These are two trees to the right of #3 green.  Here again you can see they are growing slightly in opposite directions to increase their light intake.



These trees are too close to each other and you can see some strange branching that could be have happened in response to needing more light.



In addition to staying busy removing trees, Jeff, Kerry, Eric and our faithful member volunteer Gordy Eicher have been chipping brush and burning our brush piles.

Chipping brush #4 Green

It took three of us two days to chip most of the brush from the trees that were removed on the north side of the railroad tracks.

                                                                               



  

                  The burning of the brush piles in our 3 collection sites took us about 8 days to complete.  You may be able to see the reason for how long it took us in the photo below.  There was anywhere from 1-2 feet of snow on top of the piles.



Burning brush to the right of #4

 

Continued tree work

As we have continued to make a lot of progress on our tree removals this winter we find more evidence to show that some of these trees are "at risk" trees.  You can see in these photos the cracking and cavities that are present. 

There is no doubt that is has been a wise choice to remove these trees proactively.

In this photo to the left you can see all the rotten wood that surrounds the cavity.  These trees can be very unpredictable especially if they are softer wooded trees.  Another element that comes into play is the size of the tree.  Once trees get large they are impacted by the elements (wind, lightning, rain) to a greater degree.  They also become quite heavy.  I would compare this to putting a backpack on that is loaded down.  If you are not strong enough to handle the extra weight it will effect your stability much more.  Obviously this is a slow process and at what point in the thinning of the trees trunk will failure occur, I don't know.  I have not heard of a definitive way to predict trees failure in this instance.

Tree Removals Winter 2010-2011

At the Dec. 9th Greens and Grounds meeting I presented the list of trees to be removed this winter.  After reviewing the list the Committee did not feel there was a need to approve the list as it only included trees that needed to be taken down due to conditions or was part of the on-going Management Plan that was done by StrataPoint Inc.

The list below has two categories.  The first is trees that need to be taken down due to their condition.  The second is a list of trees that were recommended (Tree Management Plan) for removal.  I have also included the page or pages from the Plan where the recommendations can be found.

Tree Removals Winter 2010-2011

At Risk Trees
#1 Willow left of fairway bunker (decline and splitting/Plan pg.103)
#4 Willow near creek (closest the green) (damage and splitting)
     Oak behind green (dead)
#5 Cottonwood left hillside (lightning)
#8 Willow and Silver Maple left of tee (damage and splitting)
     Willow left of fairway next to pond (damage and cavity at base)
     River Birch right side past irrigation controller (dying/dead)
#10 Willows (2) right off of forward tee (damage)
#16 Silver Maple right of cart path by tees (multi-stem cracking)
       Willow near pond closer to #11 (damage)
#17 Willow near forward tee (cavity)
       Pine (2) past bunker (storm damage)
#18 Oak (4) left of tee (Oak Wilt)
Clubhouse - Buckeye next to small parking lot (splitting)

Other Removals Based on Tree Plan and Turf Condition
#1 Ash and Pine behind green (Plan pg.53 pgs.16-18&29)
#2 Ash next to cart path at green (Plan pgs.16-18&29)
     Cottonwood (6) dieback (out of play)
#4 Ash left of approach (Plan pgs.16-18&29)
     Linden and Oak behind green (Turf Conditions/Plan pg.75)
#6 Silver Maple right of green (Plan pgs88-89/Turf Conditions)
#7 Silver Maple and Pine between green and cart path left side(Plan pg.92/Turf Conditions)
     Pines behind green (3 of the 5) (Plan pg.93)
#10 Silver Maple next to fairway bunker (Plan pg.107/Turf Conditions)
#12 Ash (2) left of green (Plan pgs.16-18&29)
       Silver Maple right of green (Plan pg.116/Turf Conditions)
       Linden (2) right of fairway (Plan pg.117)
#13 Ash (6) between green and #14 tee (Plan pgs.16-18,29&122)
#14 Ash (9), Tamarac (2), and Silver Maple (1) behind green (Plan pgs.16-18,29&132/Turf Conditions)
#15 Silver Maple (2) left off of tee (Plan pg.134-135)
       Pine left of approach (Plan pg.134-135)
#16 Ash (5) right of approach and Ash (4) and Silver Maple (1) behind green (Plan pgs.16-18,29&140/       Turf Conditions)
#17 Ash (3) left of tee (Plan pgs.16-18&29)
#18 Ash (2) and Oak (1) left of approach (Plan pgs.16-18,29&150)

I will continue to keep you post on our progress.

We have been busy with a number of projects this week in addition to preparing for the Ladies Dellwood/North Oaks/White Bear Challenge and for the Memorial Weekend Tournament.  Earlier this week we took down a large Cottonwood tree off the right side of #11 tee.  This tree was removed because it was encroaching on the tee shot from the Blue tee and for another small tee (for #11) that will be constructed near the Blue tee for #9. 

These are the before and after photos of the area.

Colleen our Head Gardener and her crew have been busy filling gardens with fresh annuals.

 

We also were able to move some shrubs we had taken out from behind the Pro Shop and use them along the pool parking lot.

Just in case you were wondering why your eyes might be itching, your throat was sore, or you couldn't stop sneezing.  These pictures below tell the story.  The photo on the left is a deposit of pollen that was produced after an irrigation cycle washed it down into a collection area on a cart path.  The photo on the right is not smoke but rather pollen being blown off of some Scotch Pine to the right of #15 tee.  Everyday when I leave work I have to run my wiper blades and some wiper fluid to take the layer of pollen off my windshield.  Now if that wasn't enough we are inundated with the cotton from the Cottonwood trees and the little helicopters (seeds) from the Maple trees are coming down in copious amounts.

The second project we have been working on is grinding stumps and cleaning them up.  We contract to have the stumps ground and do the clean work ourselves.  The grinder has a 55hp engine and  makes quick work of your average sized stumps.   However, most of stumps were of the above average size.  It took the contractor over an hour to grind the stump next to the 1st green and another hour for the stump next to the 10th green.  In fact the Willow stump next to 10 was the biggest the contractor had ever worked on.

It will take us another week to finish cleanup and prep these areas for sod.  We try to use composted material that we have generated on-site to fill in these areas.  Generally, if the stump hole is very large we will put some fill material first and cap it with the compost.

Simple Tools Make Work Much Easier

    I am going to start this entry with another look at the tree next to 18 green.  I will show you some more signs that the tree is not doing well.  In these photos you can see some more cavity decay and some woodpecker damage. 

   Woodpecker holes don't always tell you that a tree is dead or dying but they tend to work on dead wood.  There are woodpeckers called Sapsuckers that do exactly that.  They feed on the sap of a tree or the insects that are attracted to the sap.  These woodpeckers like live trees and you can tell that they are Sapsuckers by the pattern they leave.  They leave tight rows of holes.  This damage can girdle a tree and kill it.  Woodpeckers will also use trees to do their territorial drumming in the Spring.

This photo shows Dan Hamel with Tree Works using what looks like a large wristrocket on a stick.  He uses this to get his rope up high into the tree canopy.  He has a long thin string that is attached to a weighted bag.  He puts the bag into the slingshot and fires it up into the top of the tree.

   He attaches the string to his rope and pulls it up over the limb. He uses this to secure himself to the tree to do his work.  These guys are fearless and extremely talented.

We have spent the last week implementing the first phase of the Tree Management Plan that the club had done by Strata Point Inc.  This first phase has us removing all hazardous trees or those that are showing signs of decay.  We are also moving forward with decreasing our population of Ash trees now while we can do removals in an affordable (in-house) way.

Along with the removal plan, Strata Point has identified areas of the course where we could add approximately 125 trees.  One of the main goals in replacing trees is to increase the diversity of tree Species which in turn will provide the club's property with a healthier tree population.


What we are seeing in a number of the trees is severe decay or structural issues.  The tree to the right shows one of the multi-stemmed trees.  These trees have multiple leaders that are competing with each other and contain included bark, all of which produce a structurally weak tree.  These trees are very susceptible to storm damage.

As you can see in the photo to the left the tree has a large cavity at the base of the tree.  What you can't see is this particular tree is approximately 75 feet high and the cavity extended up through the main trunk.  This type of structural deficiency creates a very unpredictable situation when the tree faces environmental stresses.

The opening you see is actually the front door for a penthouse suite for two squirrels.  They made a hasty exit when they found out the building had been condemned.

You can see in the photo on the right  more of the severe decay this Ash tree had.  When the tree hit the ground the trunk split in half.

           

                                                                                                                                                                                 You can see this tree has a large seam running up one side of the tree.  This was probably the result of being probably struck by lightning at one time.  We will keep you posted on our progress and the different issues that arise as we move forward.

Burning brush can be tough.

On Monday we started to burn our brush piles which we thought would go rather rapidly.  With all the snow and rain we have had this winter the burning process took the entire week.

 As you can see in the photo (left) the large amounts of snow around the base of the pile.  What it doesn't show is the snow that was on top and inside the pile.  I was most surprised at how long it took for it to melt.  These fires were hot enough that you had to stay several feet away and yet it seemed the snow was hardly melting and it was only a few inches away.  It may have something to do with all the rain creating ice layers.

                         Taking some time to reload on energy!

Be sure to keep an eye on the FYI section (In the right column) for any current items of interest.  I have recently posted a link for an Emerald Ash Borer Update from the MDA.