Annie's Big Nature Lesson

As part of Annies' Big Nature Lesson (ABNL), Tracey Marchyok and Kevin Dorn had their 4th and 5th grade class at the Leslie Science and Nature Center for the week of February 11-15.

The mission of ABNL is to immerse children, teachers, and parents in the beauty and wonder of the natural world; to engage them in authentic scientific investigations by observing the local ecology, drawing and writing; to nurture citizens who value and protect natural resources; and to build a school-community partnership that inspires responsible environmental stewardship.

On Wednesday, the students came to the golf course and I talked to them about the best management practices that the golf course implements with a goal of being the best environmental stewards that we can. I talked about some of the wildlife that I see on the course and the ways that we foster habitat in out of play areas. I also talked about the Traver Creek Project and afterword, we walked out on the course to look at the progress on the stream restoration.

I also got some samples of the water that the students did some water quality tests on back at the science center.

One great thing that I learned was that some of the students were in Wendy Nagle's class 2 years ago when we put up some bat houses that they made. Many of the kids remembered me and gave me a very warm welcome. Here is a picture of us putting up one of the bat houses on #3.

January 2013 Weather Summary

The highest temperature recorded at Leslie Park Golf Course was 61.8 degrees, at 4:00 AM on January 30th. The lowest temperature recorded was -1.2 degrees (Jan 22nd.) The average temp was 28.7 degrees. Thirteen days had temperatures that never got above the freezing mark. There were 25 days were the low temperature was below 32 degrees.

There was a total of 1.93 inches of rain. The maximum amount of daily rain was 0.68 inches, on Jan 11th. It should be noted that the weather station only records liquid amounts of precipitation. Snow is not always recorded but is sometimes recorded when snow in the collector melts.

The highest sustained windspeed was 38 mph on January 20th. Average windspeed was 4.7 mph.

Traver Creek Project Update #8

The excavation of Traver Creek through the golf course as well as the excavation of the arrowood drain are complete. These areas have been seeded with a native plant mixture and covered with straw mulch blankets. The crossings have been fabricated and are usable. Rough grading of most of the spoil pils on the golf course is complete. There are three major piles that still need rough grading, the berm along Traver Road, the hill between #18 tee and #10 fairway as well as the hill to the west of #14 tee.

All of the spoil piles need final grading as well as seeding of the turfgrass varieties. Sod will be laid along #11 fairway, #10 tee and fairway as well as any area where haul roads crossed fairways. Some of these areas include #14, #16, #13 and possibly #18.

Golf Course staff are looking at finalizing plans for tree replacement. There are over 100 trees that are budgeted to be planted after the ground thaws.

One other major assignment will be the repair and replacement of damaged irrigation pipe and heads that either needed to be moved or were damaged during construction.

Most of this work cannot be acomplished during sub-freezing weather, so the construction crew will be taking some time off and will be back in a couple of weeks.

Here are some photos of Traver Creek about to crest above the "low flow channel" and into the "high flow channel." This allows the water to signifcantly slow down and deposit sediment that it has picked up before finally making it to the Huron River.

Near #12 green.

From #13 tee. #10 tee is the large mound of soil to the right of the creek.

Looking from the bridge near #13 tee toward the practice green.

The convergance of the new arrowood drain and Traver Creek.

Traver Creek Project Update #7

After taking some time off at the end of the year, progress has been steady on the Traver Creek project. Unfortunately, snow has fallen and pictures do not come out well in snowy conditions.

Here are some.

On the bridge between #12 green and #13 tee, looking toward #11 green.

Same bridge, looking toward the practice green.

#13 tee.

New crossing over the Arrowood drain, looking toward #11 fairway.

Same crossing, looking back toward #11 tee.

Wetland between #11 green and #12 green after seeding. Taken from the bridge near #12 tee.

Same view,  looking toward #13 tee.

This video was taken from #13 tee. It shows three excavators working on the creek and wetland.

December and 2012 Yearly Weather Summary

December 2012 had a high temperature of 61.5 degrees on the 4th. The lowest temperature recorded was 8.5 degrees(Dec 28th.) The average temperature was 35.5. December had 5 days which did not get above freezing. There were 19 days where the low temperature for the day was below 32 degrees.

There was 2.16 inches of rain during the moth. The highest daily rainfall was 1.00 inches (Dec 20th.) Twelve days had more than a trace of rain, while 5 days had at least a tenth of an inch.

The highest windspeed recorded was 37.0 mph (Dec 21st.) The average windspeed was 3.6 mph.

For the entire year of 2012, Leslie Park received 21.35 inches of rain. The maximum daily rain for the year was 1.18 inches on August 10th. For comparison, 2011 had nearly 42 inches of rain with 3 rain events of over 2 inches.

The highest temperature for 2012 was 100.6 on July 6th.  The lowest temperature recorded was 0.6 degrees on January 6th.

The highest sustained windspeed recorded was 37 mph on three separate occasions: March 3rd, April 16th and December 21st.

Traver Creek Project Update #6

The North Pond has basically been finished. The slopes have been seeded and covered with a straw mulch. The wall is done and the pond is up to the normal level.

The South Pond underpass is done. Here you can see the forms around the headwall.

The pumper truck fills in the concrete forms.

The guy on the right in this photo has a chest mounted remote control that moves the pump chute.

Video of the pumper truck in action.

After the forms were removed.

The Arrowood Drain has been started. This will run between #11 tee and #13 tee and returns this to a more historically accurate path for the water.

This is the view from in front of #13 tee.

Traver Creek Project Update #5

Things have been going pretty well with the Traver Creek Project. The three retaining walls were finished on Friday, November 30th.

Almost done with the north pond (#17) wall.

The wall from the north side.

The wall and rip-rap along the Traver Creek discharge from the pond.

Working on wall 2 by #10 green.

The finished product.

Seeding with native plants along the creek and installing mulch blankets.

Looking down from #17 green toward #10 green.

Starting the final wall near #12 green.

Diversion on the south pond (#12)

The view from 12 tee.

Dredging of the south pond begins.