Winter tree removal projects?

[Dan Herrmann]

Hi - Just wondering if anybody knew of any winter tree removal projects due for the 09-10 off season.

I just read about the tree work at Highlands Links which is opening up great vistas and finally letting the turf get some sunshine.  To me, projects like this are key to golf in this century.

A course with good tree management would lose less water, have better turf conditions, and would probably be more true to the original designer's intent.

In a similar vein, wouldn't it be great if ANGC would remove some of the trees planted in the last 20 years?

[PCCraig]

Random question/thread jack: Why do courses remove trees in the Fall/Winter? I would of thought it would be harder here in the northern states when the ground was starting to freeze.

I did notice last week on a course with a recent history of tree cutting here in Chicago a number of trees marked to be cut, trimmed, or otherwise.

[Ryan DeMay]

Pat,

Tree work is typically done in the winter for just the reason you mentioned, frozen ground.  Falling tree do less damage to frozen ground. Also frozen ground and cold temperature typically means the course is either closed or devoid of golfers.  With safety and efficiency in mind, winter is a great time to do tree work on northern golf courses.

[PCCraig]

Pat,

Tree work is typically done in the winter for just the reason you mentioned, frozen ground.  Falling tree do less damage to frozen ground. Also frozen ground and cold temperature typically means the course is either closed or devoid of golfers.  With safety and efficiency in mind, winter is a great time to do tree work on northern golf courses.

Got it, thanks for the explination!

[Bart Bradley]

Grandfather has started a tree removal/pruning project!  We need some more sunlight to our greens...hoping for great results  .

Bart

[JMEvensky]

Random question/thread jack: Why do courses remove trees in the Fall/Winter? I would of thought it would be harder here in the northern states when the ground was starting to freeze.

I did notice last week on a course with a recent history of tree cutting here in Chicago a number of trees marked to be cut, trimmed, or otherwise.

Also,there are fewer players around to complain about it.

[Carl Johnson]

Carolina GC in Charlotte is doing some tree removal this winter.  It's already begun.  Dead trees.  We finished an extensive renovation of the course a year ago, and, as expected, trees are dying as a result of soil compaction and other construction-related causes.  My sense is that winter, even in the mid-south, is a good time to remove dead trees because play is down and the trees can be easily identified as they die through out the summer and marked for removal more or less at the same time in the winter.  Maybe our GM, Roger Wolfe, can chime in on this.  To me it seems to be a simple and obvious process.

[Rory Connaughton]

Dan:

  We will be doing some removal (for example more to go behind 2 green) and we will also be taking up some young trees and replanting them because it has become obvious that they will encroach on the line of flight from the right fairway bunker to the ride side of the green on 14

[Jason Topp]

We remove trees every winter pursuant to a plan put together several years ago. 

This year, I know we are removing a couple around a green - one because of the morning shade and the other because its roots are under 2/3 of the nearby green.  It is amazing how wide roots spread.

I suspect we are also removing many more.

[Roger Wolfe]

Carolina GC in Charlotte is doing some tree removal this winter.  It's already begun.  Dead trees.  We finished an extensive renovation of the course a year ago, and, as expected, trees are dying as a result of soil compaction and other construction-related causes.  My sense is that winter, even in the mid-south, is a good time to remove dead trees because play is down and the trees can be easily identified as they die through out the summer and marked for removal more or less at the same time in the winter.  Maybe our GM, Roger Wolfe, can chime in on this.  To me it seems to be a simple and obvious process.

We are taking out all the dead trees, using a tree service to get the ones in perilous spots where the wrong gust of wind would result in broken cart paths, crushed pumphouses and 50 foot oaks floating in the lake.  We also had our architect, Kris Spence, come out and help direct the tree service on our 10th fairway.  We have had trouble establishing turf on the right side of our tenth fairway due to shade issues.  We removed several trees and large limbs which should result in a much better bermudagrass environment.

[Bill Brightly]

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Also,there are fewer players around to complain about it.
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Bingo! Almost all of our tree removal was done in the winter. When playing with known "tree huggers" in the Spring, I used to love asking them "what is different about this hole" and almost no one could remember the trees that we took out

[Rick Shefchik]

My home course, Stillwater Country Club, has cut down about 100 trees this fall alone, on top of 40 last year and about the same number the year before that. I rejoice at each tree that falls, but there are club members -- those who are still playing in upper-40s temperatures -- who mourn each tree, and complain about the loss of their favorites.

The primary reason for taking so many down is the encroachment of the emerald ash boarer, which will eventually kill all our ash trees -- which we have in abundance, since we planted the fast-growing ash trees to replace the elms we lost to Dutch elm disease in the '70s. But an equally good reason is to get more sunlight and air circulation on our greens, tees, fairways and rough. We still have plenty of trees -- I counted 30 on one hole yesterday, after a half-dozen had been removed there.

The ones that generate the most controversy are the specimen trees used as protection for the red tees when there are players teeing off from the white and blue tees. I can sympathize to an extent, but the trade-off will be the improved condition of the tees. I think our club members will eventually appreciate improved grass, and forget the trees that are gone.

[Mark Chaplin]

Flossmoor CC, IL did a great tree removal programme in 2008/2009. There were some good pictures in a thread earlier this spring.