Unlike the Sitka spruce that grew on Haida Gwaii (go
HERE), golden conifers on the golf course mean trouble.
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| Picea not-lookin-so-goodica |
One of the group of pines planted between 6 tee and 9 green finally went funky. Those trees were sort of seconds from a local nursery and the middle one has always been a funny tree that finally had enough. I don't believe the trees demise was beetle related but most likely something specific to that particular tree (there is a thing called pine wilt caused by a nematode but you need to send sample to lab for conformation. If it is pine wilt you basically remove the wood, chip it, and burn or bury it. We're going to do that anyways so paying for a diagnosis is somewhat mute.) I'll replace it but not until the weather is better (i.e. not as hot and dry)
We wrapped a pink ribbon around a Ponderosa pine on the left of #14 down by the fairway bunker on the right side.
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| Beetle Kill Ponderosa, Right #14 Fwy |
That is pine beetle and we missed it last fall. Truthfully, we never really had the time to scout let alone remove any pine beetle trees since all staff but myself and the mechanic were pretty much laid off once play was finished. A short term gain budget wise but the long term cost will be more trees lost to pine beetle and, unfortunately for us, the trees are what makes KGC a golf course.
River Watch
I started doing this couple years ago and in a year with all the heat we've had and so little rain we are really depending on the river to supply us with water until the cooler weather comes.
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| Flow at River Intake, July 28 |
At the time of the July 28th picture the pumps were still supplying about 325 GPM to the reservoir (versus around 425 GPM previously throughout the season). As it stands now this is what we got:
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| Flow at River Intake, August 5th |
What makes this an auspicious day is the drop in flow at the river now means we can only pump around 210 GPM which means over a 24 hour period the most we can pump is 302400 gallons. Up to this point in time the golf course sees about 450 000 to 480 000 gallons of water a night. Obviously, each time we irrigate we will unable to replace over 150 000 gallons in the reservoir so based on the reservoir capacity we will run out of water in 28 days, i.e. September 2. Again, obviously, I will stop irrigating areas and we should start to use less water but even with those measures I don't see us getting much past the middle of the month. A Couple years ago the City allowed us to use the fire hydrant to supply us with water but a letter from the Operations Department this spring said that was a "one time deal". Our quickest option it to tie into the Mathew Creek line that runs through the golf course via a new connection installed by the city. We would then have to connect to our system. Both options cost $$$ and we would have to pay the city up front and pay for a contractor to connect to our system.
This whole situation is getting old and is giving me grey hair and wrinkles. (Go
HERE to review 2012's river problems.). We really need to be responsible and look at viable alternatives and commit to addressing the low river/dirty river situations before our luck runs out.
