Lynx?
Earlier this week one morning some staff saw a lynx cruising the back nine. One staff member had a camera on his phone and took a picture. Just like a Loch Ness Monster or Sasquatch "sighting" the picture is sort of left open for interpretation but this sight was corroborated by two sane and sober (possibly) people so I am taking it to be a real event.
Most of this week was taken up with tree maintenance. We purchased 8 trees to replace some damaged and weak trees we've planted over past couple years. You have to know where to look to see where we've placed them so, in other words, the new trees are nothing too terribly exiciting.
One spot you will see, however, is the hole on the left of 5 fairway about 120 or so yards from the green. While digging out the trees we were replacing we also did some root pruning.
Digging out Roots
Roots had crept into the fairway and were becoming a problem when we mowed. The tree is large and, generally, if you are careful not to remove too much root mass there should be no serious harm to the tree.
Ponderosa Pine and Root
Excavation
One great picture that shows the benefits of root pruning goes back to when we added extra irrigation around 6 green a few years ago. I took the following picture late in fall long after the irrigation had been blown out. The picture clearly shows the dividing line of where we dug a trench for the new irrigation.
Visual Benefits of
Root Pruning Trees
During excavation we dug through numerous tree roots that were reaching out into 6 fairway. Once the tree roots were cut the turf no longer had to compete for water with the tree and grew to become a decent stand of grass. From the above picture you can obviously see that the turf on tree side of the trench still had the added stress of competing with the tree roots and, as a result, it entered dormancy sooner than the turf on the "root free" side of the trench. Every time I mow #2 or #6 fairways I always think about implementing a irrigation/root pruning program for those fairways since the roots are so prevalent on those holes.
Visual Benefits of
Root Pruning Trees
During excavation we dug through numerous tree roots that were reaching out into 6 fairway. Once the tree roots were cut the turf no longer had to compete for water with the tree and grew to become a decent stand of grass. From the above picture you can obviously see that the turf on tree side of the trench still had the added stress of competing with the tree roots and, as a result, it entered dormancy sooner than the turf on the "root free" side of the trench. Every time I mow #2 or #6 fairways I always think about implementing a irrigation/root pruning program for those fairways since the roots are so prevalent on those holes.
