OMG - Our minimalist course now has a waterfall!

[Dan Herrmann]

Yep - it's true.

The beavers have dammed up French Creek, resulting in a new big beaver pond and a 2' high waterfall over their new dam.  If you know the course, this is on the 3rd hole.  Doesn't affect the play, but the new pond makes a walking trail along the creek impassable.  (Honestly, the sound of the running water over the waterfall is a pretty nice touch)

You can trap these guys legally, but it really shows how mother nature can quickly change a golf course in the dead of winter.

What other examples (other than the obvious storm-related damage) can you think of that shows how mother nature can quietly and quickly change a golf course?

[Jason Topp]

One course I play regularly experienced a tornado that removed about 1,000 trees.  It probably improved the course.

[Adam Clayman]

Dan Check out this farse with the State of Michigan and a land owner. Very funny stuff.


http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/b/beaverdam.htm

[Tony Weiler]

Adam, that is dam funny. 

[Ian Andrew]

We had Beavers removing critical trees from along the river at Scarboro. Scarboro is under the juristiction of a city wide tree by-law where every tree cut down is replaced by four trees being re-planted. We carefully documented each tree with a photo showing the removal by the Beaver since that meant we did not have to re-plant a single tree in replacement. We tried everything we could to convince the Beaver to eat certain key trees, but it would have none of that. Eventually the city trapped and removed the Beaver ending our most wonderful run.

After that point we spent some time talking about if there was any way to train a Beaver and how effective a strategy that could become to dealing with by-laws.

[Dick Kirkpatrick]

Did you think about putting poplar (sycamore) bark on those trees you wanted chewed down?

[David_Tepper]

Dan Herrmann -

While it is not exactly quick, the aggressive growth of gorse can certainly impact the playing corridors of many links courses over a 5-10 year period.

The Ocean Course and the par-3 Cliffs Course at the Olympic Club in San Francisco have suffered both temporary and permanent damage from the landslide caused by winter storms over the past 80 years. Greens have been moved multiple times and  several holes have been abandoned. In fact, the original Willie Watson-designed Ocean Course was abandoned due to storm damage in the 1920's. 

DT  

[SL_Solow]

Ian;  what are the rules on lightening strikes (or cattle prods hypothetically of course)?