Cattails or no cattails?

[Dan Herrmann]

On our (French Creek's) #12, we have a small creek, that's about 5 feet wide, that runs up the right hand side of the hole, you cross it, and it ends up on the right side of the green.  It's actually straight as an arrow, and plays an important strategic part of the hole's defense.

We're in our 3rd summer, and some cattails have sprung up.  Personally, I hate them, because I think that Gil would have been after a Scottish bern (sic).  But we have members that think they add a nice dimension.

They're now about 7 feet high - it's been a good growing year here in SE Pennsylvania.  The frogs sure love them!

What do you think - keep them, or lose them?

[peter_p]

How much is hidden to the golfer by the cattails and how much does this add to the defenses of the hole? Flying blind here as to length of hole and where on hole the burn is crossed.
My first inclination is to keep them if they don't hinder the play of the hole too much.

[Brent Hutto]

If the frogs like them I'd rather keep them. That's assuming they're in the hazard and that they don't make a normal shot from the fairway blind or something like that.

[Dan Herrmann]

Vostinak-Stogie?

[Eric Pevoto]

Dan,

I think...hmmm...well.  No

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

lol well done Bill. I feel the same way about Pampous grass.

[Don_Mahaffey]

Cattails will take a small body of water and turn it into a swamp. Their roots allow for silt build up and your small creek will get smaller over time if you let them take over. Let 'em freeze back in the winter and burn 'em down is my advice.

[Jeff Morrill]

Sounds like they add a nice dynamic to the hole as they don't cause a blind shot.  Let them grow naturally and penalize the poor approach shot.

[Craig Sweet]

They are a lovely weed in my opinion. But a weed never the less and weeds are a pain in the arse. Certainly there must be a native sedge, or other riparian plant you could establish if you want a "nice dynamic" added to the hole.

[Brian Cenci]

Craig and Don are correct.  They are weeds and an invasive "wetland" or "wet tolerant" species.  In my opinion there is a lot better that should be planted there.  How about some purple loose strife...I can name hundreds of more attractive water border species.  But cattails are too invasive and really don't provide a lot of aquatic benefit.

-Brian

[Mike McGuire]

Brian -

It didn't seem so in your quote,  but im hoping you'r joking about purple loosestrife. It is a major invasive.....

Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria L.) is an erect, herbaceous perennial of Eurasian origin that became established in the estuaries of northeastern North America by the early 1800's. By the late 1800's it had spread throughout the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, reaching as far north and west as Manitoba. L. salicaria caused few problems until the 1930's when it became aggressive in the floodplain pastures of the St. Lawrence River. Since then, it has steadily expanded its local distribution and now poses a serious threat to native emergent vegetation in shallowwater marshes throughout the northeastern and northcentral regions. Recent records indicate that purple loosestrife is also tolerant of soils and climates beyond these regions and threatens to become a serious problem in wetlands and irrigation systems in the Great Plains and the Far West.

It is no small irony that after 50 years of struggle to find some means of breaking up monotypic stands of cattails (Typha spp.) to increase wildlife diversity and abundance, wetland managers must now cope with a foreign species that replaces cattail, but unfortunately creates another monospecific community of greatly diminished wildlife value.

[Craig Sweet]

Purple Loosestrife is very...very...very BAD!!!! Pretty, but very bad. Each plant is capable of producing thousands of seeds. It will also sprout from chunks of root.

Sedges, the little native iris,monkeyflower, they would be nice.