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Eric Smith

  • Karma: +0/-0
pine beetles and golf architecture New
« on: August 01, 2008, 01:08:08 PM »
Back in 2000 I think it was,  the Cumberland plateau in Tennessee succumbed to the infestation of the southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis) and saw massive damage inflicted on thousands upon thousands of acres of loblolly pines (and others).


To this day you can view some of the remains of their last visit to our mountains just driving across Cumberland County on interstate 40. 


The huge paper company Bowater owns hundreds of thousands of acres of pine timber and some of the tracts run along the I-40 corridor heading east towards Knoxville.

By now, most all of the acreage (here) is replanted with new loblolly pines while most of the dead trees were removed, but you can still see quite a few if you are looking for them.

Relative to golf architecture?: in looking up loblolly pines and the southern pine beetle using google search, I see that they both can be found as far north as southern New Jersey.

My questions are:

1.   Are loblolly pines found along the fairways of Pine Valley GC and if so are there alot of them?

2.   Has the pine beetle ever threatened those trees?

3.   If so, would an infestation of those trees at Pine Valley, like the one that occurred in 2000 in the southeast, have a damaging effect on the golf architecture at PV?   Would a massive loss of tree life at Pine Valley hurt the resistance to scoring, (‘bunkers in the sky’) etc..and ultimately its #1 ranking?

These question could be posed towards say, Pinehurst #2 as well, or any other course within pine forests.  Pine Valley, being, well Pine Valley, it (pine) is in its name.


I 've seen many old pictures of Pine Valley (like this one above) and it looks almost barren back in the early days, so I’m guessing probably not, but would love to hear your thoughts.

By the way the other type of destruction, eg high winds, took down some 75 trees this past week at my club in Knoxville.  I played after the course reopened and, coupled with the tree removal program we're currently undergoing liked the openess of the place even more.

*EDIT* - I did not see the damage to the old red oak on hole#14 when playing that day. I certainly would not have wished to see it go and am sad it has been lost.

From John Mayhugh's thread http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=35875.0

« Last Edit: August 15, 2008, 03:54:00 PM by Eric Smith »

Ed Oden

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: pine beetles and golf architecture
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2008, 01:47:16 PM »
A good friend of mine was just out in Colorado last week.  He said the same phenomenon had occurred there and you could see mile after mile of nothing but dead trees.  Not sure if it is the same species of beetle out west.  But the damage has apparently been equally devastating.

Ed

Craig Disher

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: pine beetles and golf architecture
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2008, 02:52:45 PM »
Does the beetle ignore white pines? At my home course we lost a few pines to an insect invasion (not sure pine bark beetles were the culprit; the trees had many small holes in the trunk) but the blasted white pines, some right next to the dying trees, were unaffected.

Tony Ristola

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: pine beetles and golf architecture
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2008, 03:39:12 PM »
The beetles are on both sides of the Atlantic.

In Germany they had some problems with the Borken Keifer (spelling could be off). It kills the trees from the top down. In So Cal they had the same problem. I remember a policeman who had a place in Arrowhead asked to cut 6 infested trees from his property but didn't get permission after months. No worries, the fires back in 2005(?) took care of them, and sad to say his house too. The fires jumped from dry infested tree top to dry infested tree top.

Much of British Columbia is infested.
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpposted/archive/2008/01/29/cold-snap-won-t-kill-b-c-s-pine-beetles.aspx
« Last Edit: August 01, 2008, 03:41:19 PM by Tony Ristola »

Kalen Braley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: pine beetles and golf architecture
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2008, 03:41:01 PM »
I know its a problem in the Spokane area as well, with some type of Beetle, not sure if its the same one.  Many there are trying to thin out the pines so they are fighting for less sun and water, and have more energy to fight off the beatles.

Mother Nature sure can be a mean bitch sometimes!!!

Dan Herrmann

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: pine beetles and golf architecture
« Reply #5 on: August 01, 2008, 04:00:04 PM »
Dutch Elm disease surely left a permanent negative mark on US golf courses too.