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