Tree Management Activities

In an earlier post this year I mentioned that our annual pruning activities were underway. (See Annual Pruning Activities - Mar. 2)  Well I'm happy to now report that the aerial work is complete, nearly all of the branches have been removed from the course, and most of the remnant debris has been raked clean.  Hundreds of trees were pruned throughout the course over a two week period and the result is improved canopy structure, reduced chance of hazardous/dead branch fall, reduced incidence of disease through sanitation pruning, improved light penetration for the underlying turf, and overall improved health and appearance. Our remaining task now is the chipping of the branches stockpiled at various locations around the course.

In addition to this annual pruning we also have begun to address an additional tree management activity, that of tree removal. As I mentioned in the Mar. 2nd post and last year as well (click on Tree Management under Blog Topics to see all posts) we follow a set of criteria I call the 5-D's when determining whether a tree warrants removal.


The 5-D’s that guide our tree removal actions:
• Diseased - significant infection that is untreatable or too costly to treat.
• Decayed/Dead - significant decay, or complete death, resulting in structural weakening and hazardous conditions.
• Damaged - significant structural damage from high winds and/or lightning.
• Disfigured - Unattractive shape from over crowding of adjacent trees or from damage.
• Disruptive – Affecting playability. Causing traffic concentration, excess turf loss from shade, root system impacts to turf and drainage tile systems.

Approximately 25 trees have been identified as having met one or more of the 5-D criteria, more than half of which are spruce trees in groupings at two locations.  The following photos show some of the trees that have been (or will soon be) removed and the criteria reason.

  Spruce (5)- behind alternate tee #12 - Severely Diseased, Disfigured, Disruptive to tee.

Austrian Pine - #7 berm rt. of tee - Approx. 2/3rds Dead

 Silver Maple - Rt. rough #8 - Severe Canker Disease


 
Close up of Canker in above photo - causing dieback of canopy

Red Oak - Lft. rough #17 - Damaged central leader

Spruce - No. 8 Lft. of green - Diseased, Disfigured

Spruce (3) -walk path at #9 - Diseased, Damaged, Disruptive

Arborvitae and Spruce - Lft. edge #9 pond - Damaged, Diseased, Disfigured

Close up of Arborvitae & Spruce in previous photo showing extensive dieback from Disease

The above photographs are not all of the removals planned but do represent the majority and the most significant.  In some cases we will replace the removed trees/shrubs, such as in the last photo at #9 pond, where we intend to replant with a combination of clump form ornamental trees (Serviceberry), shrubs (Red-twig Dogwood) and grasses (Indian grass, Little-blue stem) which will provide multiple season interest.