Will this winter's snow and ice storms result in

[Patrick_Mucci]

the removal of an inordinate number of damaged trees on golf courses this spring ?

[Jason Walker]

Since I'm still tallying the damage to my front and back yard (and it's substantial), I can only imagine what's happened at Tavistock which is 1/4 mile from my house.  That said, the tree removal effort there has been 'tree-mendous' so I'm not sure what the incremental benefits will be.

[Malcolm Mckinnon]

The mature white pines in NJ are slowly resembling extraordinarily large flag sticks.

[Bill Brightly]

It is impossible to remove an inordinate amount of white pines from New Jersey. I am optimistic that mother nature did a good job and left the hardwoods.

[Mike Cirba]

Patrick,

That would be nice but it's also likely that all the extended ice coverage will lead to damaged greens and turf as happened in the northeadt the last time this type of thing occurred, unfortunately.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Patrick,

That would be nice but it's also likely that all the extended ice coverage will lead to damaged greens and turf as happened in the northeadt the last time this type of thing occurred, unfortunately.

Mike, many clubs cover their greens with tarps to prevent ice damage and keep them warmer during the winter.

It would seem like that would be a prudent investment this winter.

[Matt Dupre]

I just drove down Ardmore Avenue this morning, and noticed that there were a number of fairly large pine boughs down on the right side of #2 at Merion.  The good news is that the weight of the snow down here seems to have impacted the pines more than the hardwoods, which in my view is a good thing.

As for the impact of snow and ice on greens, I think this winter is closer to last year than the winter of '98 (?) when we had a 3 inch layer of ice directly on the ground, keeping oxygen away from the plant. Rolling Green's greens are covered, but according to Charlie Carr they're getting plenty of air.

[Brian Chapin]

Patrick,

That would be nice but it's also likely that all the extended ice coverage will lead to damaged greens and turf as happened in the northeadt the last time this type of thing occurred, unfortunately.

Mike, many clubs cover their greens with tarps to prevent ice damage and keep them warmer during the winter.

It would seem like that would be a prudent investment this winter.

Greens covers are meant more to protect the turf from wind damage than ice damage... a thick layer of ice over a greens cover can cause just as much damage to the plants as without the cover. 

In my experience ice damage is much more of a problem where WATER sits on greens and freezes solid.  Ice created from heavy snow fall tends to be much more porous and allow sufficient gas exchange for the plant to survive.

As for the trees.... I don't think this winter will bring any more damage than any other winter.  Most trees that are big enough to be a problem on the golf course have survived many ice storms in previous years.  Trees that are showing signs of damage are most likely already weak, damaged or suffering from White Pine Disease.

Also at this point I think the case for tree removals has been made so well that many courses have already removed many of their weaker trees. Summer thunderstorms and winter ice storms do far less damage to the healthy, well established native species.