Windy days and broken trees

On Friday, May 4th, the weather station at Leslie Park recorded sustained windspeeds of 38 mph. Unfortunately, this created a problem in the orchard between #6 and #8. Two of the original pear trees from Dr Leslie's orchard were blown over. Both were hollow and predated the golf course. The expected lifespan of a pear tree is around 50 years, so this is not a surprise. 

One of the downed trees. You can see the other in the background.

You can read about our efforts to maintain the spirit of the orchard HERE. Basically, every year we try to replace around 10 of the pear trees. When the golf course was built, there was a 12 tree by 12 tree section that was left. This meant that at least 144 pear trees, plus around 25 cherry trees were a part of the golf course.

Ten years ago, there were less than 90 of these trees left. Now, through attrition of new trees and the death of the old trees, we have almost filled all of the empty spots.

A new pear tree next to the old stump.

On May 30th, the windspeeds only reached 28 mph, but that was enough to topple this old oak tree between #11 and #13. 

It was kind of big.

And also hollow.

In this picture from 2103, you can see the lean that the tree had.

Due to the tree's size, we will not be able to do anything with the trunk until the ground is frozen. Until that point, the tree will remain were it fell. Luckily, it is mostly out of the way.

Catching up

The fall has been busy at the golf courses for the City of Ann Arbor. I want to apologize for not keeping up with blogging more. I will make up for it by offering up a quick summary of some of the projects we have been doing.

New Practice Green for Leslie Park

At the beginning of September, we stripped this area of rough behind #1 tee.

We added 60 tons of sand mixed with top soil.

Shaped it and seeded it with bentgrass. This will be an additional practice putting green. 

Five days later, the grass was starting to germinate.

Two weeks after seeding, it looked like this. We have now mowed it three times at 0.400 inch. In the spring, we will slowly bring it down to our normal green cutting height of 0.125 inch.

Level and expand tees at Leslie Park

Some of the smaller tees are getting noticeably mounded in the center. This comes from golfers taking shots from the same spots and maintenance filling the divots with sand and seed. After 20 years, the center of the tee may have grown by 6 or 12 inches. 

This forward tee on #9 was stripped of sod and leveled.

Sod from a different tee was laid out on the level surface.

It looks like we will only get to the two forward tees on #9, the white tee on #18 and the right side tee on #7 this year.

Rock wall on #7 tee at Leslie Park

As part of the leveling of #7 tee at Leslie, we are also trying to expand the usable teeing area on the back of this tee. In order to accomplish this, we are adding a rock wall, which will allow us to build up the back corner of the tee.

Geo-textile fabric is laid out behind the rocks to keep erosion to a minimum.

Cart paths and rock walls at Huron Hills

New cart paths were added to #13, 14 and 15 at Huron Hills this year. They tie into the path that was put in last year on #12. In order to keep to contours of the holes as close to original as possible and still have a fairly flat path, rock walls were also put in here.

#13 at Huron.

#15 at Huron.

Fertilizing Oak by #5 at Leslie

This oak on the right side of #5 fairway has been declining in recent years. Last year, we pruned all of the dead wood out of the canopy and de-compacted the soil around the tree.

We had a leaf tissue analysis done this year and found out that there were some micro-nutrients the tree was lacking. Micro-nutrients are nutrients aside from the big three of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium.  Here the arborists are preparing to inject the nutrients into the tree's bark.

A close-up view of the system of tubes and injection sites.

Greens aerification and top-dressing.

During aerification, I would always break tines on the front, left corner of #2 green at Leslie. After doing so again this year, I decided to dig up the rock that we kept hitting.

This little guy will love it's new home in the rock wall on #7 tee.

Tree Work

There is a very large oak tree to the left of the fairway on #5 at Leslie Park that has seen better days. Unfortunately, this tree is very important to how the hole plays. It is also very hard to replace a tree of this size. With that in mind, we have implemented a program to try and save the tree. Earlier this year, we hired a forestry consultant to look at the tree and provide recommendations. They came out in September and loosened the soil at the base of the tree. They also recommended trimming out all of the dead wood.

This is the tree in June of 2014.

Another shot of the same tree. The yellow leaves are a sign that the tree is not healthy.

This was taken looking east before the dead wood was trimmed out.

After trimming. It should be noted that these shots are taken from the side of the hole. When viewed from the tee or the green, the tree looks less lopsided.

Looking west before trimming.

After trimming.

Hopefully, these steps will keep this tree healthy and alive for many more years.

Tree Update

Last week, I wrote about some storm damage that occurred on July 9th and June 27th. This past week, we replaced the large cherry tree on the dogleg of #4 with two 4 inch diameter maple trees. Usually, the city of Ann Arbor does not plant many maples due to almost 50% of the mature canopy within the city limits already being maple. Leslie Park Golf Course, however, is situated in a predominately Oak/Hickory Forest. In conjunction for the need for fast replacement of the cherry tree due to the strategic location on the hole and the upcoming City Championship, it was decided to plant maple trees. We chose a vareity of sugar maple called "Legacy" and a red maple called "Autumn Blaze."

The Autumn Blaze is nearest to the former location of the cherry.

In this view looking back toward the tee, you can see both of the new trees. They have the thick bed of mulch under them.

The cherry that fell was in the roped off area in front of the new tree. The stump was dug out and the hole filled with soil, then seeded

More Storm Damage

On Tuesday, July 9th, Leslie Park Golf Course experienced a rain storm that dumped 1.25 inches of rain on the course. Most of this rain came down between 5:45 PM and 6 PM. There were also some isolated wind gusts of much more than the 39 mph the weather station recorded. One of these wind gusts came from #13 tee and blew toward the clubhouse. Along this path it knocked over benches, trees, table and chairs. One of the casualties to this wind was the cherry tree next to the gate crossing Traver Road.

View from the road toward the clubhouse.

Right on the fence.

From the clubhouse.

The boxelder behind #10 tee.

Just like the cherry, the tree was tipped over due to lack of roots and saturated soil conditions.

After cleaning most of it up.

You can still see the boxelder behind #10 tee. Due to the creek conditions, this tree will be left temporarily.

We need a new fence.

Storms and Flooding

Heavy rains last night (about 2 inches of rain fell at LPGC) has created some issues this morning. Traver Creek is running very high and flooding has made me eliminate the use of carts for today.

#1 green has a new water hazard.

Also, the large tree at the left corner of #4 fairway was toppled last night. This will dramatically change the hole, but the tree was not in good shape and we have been planning for it's demise for a couple of years. You can't replace a tree this size immediately, but steps will be taken soon to minimize how to hole plays.

#4 from the tee.

A closer look.

You can see the small amount of roots. This lead to the tree not being stable enough to withstand last night's wind. Also, the core of the trunk is rotting. You can also see how the bark is ripped off the front of the tree and many marks from where golf balls have struck the tree.

Looking at #4 fairway from #5 tee.

Of course, this guy was surfing a matteress about 1 mile away from the golf course on the other side of the Broadway bridge.

Orchard Trees

Before Doctor Leslie donated the land for Leslie Park Golf Course, he and his wife had been running the land as a farm. On this farm, he planted wheat, corn and other annual crops, but a large portion of the land was devoted to orchards. They had cherries, pears and apples, as well as blueberries and raspberries.  The area where 5, 6, 7 and 8 are now located was predominately pears, apples and cherries. A small portion of this orchard was retained when the course was built. It was originally a 12 row by 12 row section, with a few trees outside of this square. That would have been 144 trees.

When I started with the City of Ann Arbor, there were less than 100 of these trees left. Through the previous 40 plus years, the trees naturally died out. Since the purpose of Leslie Park was to be a golf course and not an orchard, this was not a priority. The life expectancy of these trees is not overly long, and since they were planted around the time of World War II or before, it became clear to me that if nothing was done, we would lose the entire orchard. Since this was an integral part of the strategy for playing holes 6 and 8, as well as an homage to the former use of the land, we decided to start replanting the orchard.

The first step was to decide what to plant. the northern part of the orchard still had 6 cherry trees while the rest are Bosc and Bartlett pears.  It was decided to re-establish the northern part with cherries. The "holes" in the orchard were filled in with a mixture of Bartlett pears, Comice pears, Honeycrisp apples and Red Delicious apples. The apples were added to bring about some of the historcal feel to the orchard, even though this part did not have any apples. We started slowly on the 8 fairway side. This was to get a feel for how to proceed and give us some experience with the different trees. In 2010, we planted 16 apple and pear trees. We soon discovered that the deer love the apple trees but leave the pears pretty much alone. We started to experiment with deer deterrents and finally settled on cages. The following year, we planted another 18 pears and apples, along with 12 cherry trees. This year, we got 8 Bartlett pears, 4 Comice pears and 4 Montmorency cherries. With some failed trees, this brings the total number of new trees in the orchard to 39 pear/apples and 16 cherries. A quick count shows about 10 more "holes" in the original 12x12 square. We are also going to re-establish some pears along the cart path on #8.

A cherry tree with the wire cage around it.

Beside these orchard trees, we planted 40 White Pines (Pinus strobus) in the spring of 2009. These were donated by the City of Ann Arbor's Natural Areas Preservation Division and The Adopt-A-Park program they have spearheaded. In the fall of 2009, we brought in six maple trees. These were 2.5 inches in diameter and were about 12 feet tall when planted. In the following spring, we brought in two more maples that were 4 inches in diameter. In the fall of 2010, we replaced some dead white pines with 4 blue spruce (Picea pungens.)

As a golf course manager, you have to stay one step ahead. As an ancient Chinese proverb says, "The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is right now."

Here is a satellite view of the orchard from a few years ago. You can see the gaps between the rows. These are the holes that we are trying to fill.

 
View Larger Map

Pictures of new trees.

Here are the pictures of some of the new trees that I promised.

#3 green after two new trees and two transplanted trees.

The left side of #3 before the transplanted trees.

And finally, some areas on #4 where we planted some native grasses in our naturalized areas.  We aerified and then spread the seed.  The grass is growing in the holes from the aerifier.

New trees

Due to some of the trees on the course needing to be removed because of the danger they cause.

We had some new trees brought in and moved some of the smaller trees that were already on the course.  If you have not seen a tree spade at work, here is a video.



And a picture of the tree on the spade at it's new home.

(It is not actually the same tree, but one of the seven we moved.)

The new trees that we had brought in were from a Christmas tree farm. They were starting to get too big for them to sell. I will get some pictures of the new trees in place and post them soon.