Golden Trees at Kimberly and River Update #1

Unlike the Sitka spruce that grew on Haida Gwaii (go HERE), golden conifers on the golf course mean trouble.

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.

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.

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:

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.

Counting Down to Winter

We've pretty much completed all the preparations for winter.  Last week saw the last fairway get its treatment and up to now the weather has been cooperating.  The funny thing about spraying fairways is timing.  It is not possible to treat the areas we spray in a timely fashion because of size and weather (as I referenced in the last post) so we are somewhat forced to be done by the end of October.  Although it's nice to be done the trade off can be the length the treatments are left exposed.  We use a product with three different fungicides mixed together.  The mode of action for 2 of the 3 occurs within the plant (i.e. has to be taken up by the plant) while the third chemical is a contact.  Because of this mixture we obviously have to spray before the plant goes dormant.  It could happen that if you spray too early and the fall is unusually mild the efficacy of the spray declines (if you're a "techno geek"go here for extra info).  With respect to the greens the timing is just as important but even more so since disease pressure is higher due to density, species, health, and the low HOC.  The longer I do this the more trusting I become of the chemical even when the weather is less than perfect.  I will always keep a spray handy as a back up and if I don't need it I know it will be used the following season.

The forecast for the next couple days is for sort of rain/snow so we put out all the tarps on Friday (last years post, here, covers all the basics if you itching for more info).  My plan was to purchase a new impermeable for #7 as well as more of the Enkamat to be used under both #7 and #15 tarps but weak numbers for September put the brakes on purchasing.  I did get two roll of Enkamat to use on #7 but had to stick with the ripped up tarp.  We didn't roll out the Enkamat mostly because of time constraints but I am pretty sure we'll have time since there is a history of the first snow fall usually melting.  With no Enkamat available for #15 we'll go with what we've always done (a single impermeable tarp) and hope for the best.  One more point about #15 green.  It is kind of unique because of the large hill along the right side of the green.  During spring melt and even ill timed rain events during the winter water will run on the green from the hill.  We cut one edge of the tarp into the hillside to prevent moisture from running under the tarp and creating an ice layer directly in the surface.  We've done this for years and seldom has ice of any amount developed on the green surface.

The slope is huge PITA when we blow snow because we have to blow the snow in one direction and because of the size of the green we usually end up blowing 1/2 the snow twice, if you follow me.  I am getting ahead of myself so I'll wrap up with a video of the cutting the beetle tree down on the right of 9 green.

Apologies and Brief Review

Obviously there has been no posts for months.  Other aspects have cut into the commitment it takes to update information about the "goings on" at KGC.  I'll quickly blow through what happened over the past few weeks.

The last post about the pine beetle was really the only big news or out of the ordinary news during the latter part of the season.  We found a couple more trees but their removal won't have a very big impact.  We sort of experimented with transplanting some small trees (tamaracks) this year and those appeared to have survived.  Bolstered a little bit by that very small victory we prepared some more small trees this fall for transplant next spring. 

The river worked out.  We had to do our usual grunt work making weirs and dams but really only around 70 man hours and one day with a backhoe and a vacuum truck kept at least one pump working (and the horrible wet weather in September helped out - irrigation wise, that is).  A big percentage of that 70 hours was spent cleaning out the sand from inside the wet well.  I believe the wear caused by the sand is our bigger problem in the long run and we need to find ways to mitigate it.

This was one of those years where my 9 old could have grown grass for you to play on.  We had a hard time keeping up with all the grass.  What makes that interesting is when you compare conditions to last year.  In 2012 the wet June carried us for a long time until about early August which was when the cracks started to show and the turf began burning out and things started looking haggard.  This year the weather helped conditions stay great all year.   Unfortunately, I know I will have an opportunity to lament about our 1980 irrigation system in the future but suffice to say that when there is no burned out areas between sprinklers improperly spaced at 110 feet (versus the specified maximum spacing of 90 feet) you know the weather is having an immensely positive impact on growing grass. 

With respect to the beetle infected trees we fell them once play was done and a work bee was organized to help clean up the branches.  Luckily we had the regular group of 25 or so members (who appear to make up the backbone of these events!) show up an clean all the debris left from falling the trees.  I am depending more on these types of work bees since they really help out and save money.  Keep next spring open!

There is more but I have all winter to cover other topics assuming there isn't a ton of powder days.

KGC's Version of a Pink Ribbon Campaign......

...... mostly named that because that is the colour of the flagging tape we have.  I've marked trees on the left of 6 fairway just past the mounds, left of the red tee on #7, and directly next to the right side of 9 green.

Pitch Tubes on Ponderosa Left 6 Fwy

These are all Ponderosa pines and all have been attacked by (probably) the Western Pine Beetle but who knows.  The only real way to distinguish which beetle is doing the attacking is to look at larvae or the beetle gallery below the bark.

Beetle Gallery of Mountain Pine Beetle

Beetle Gallery of Western Pine Beetle

The end result is the same as all infected trees need to be cut down and removed.  We've already had to deal with beetle kill this year as covered in the June 28th post.  There will be lots of problems with removal of these trees including the volume of material produced by their removal, deciding how and which way to fall the infected trees, and what sort of impact a possible Western Pine Beetle infestation will have on the front nine layout which pretty much depends on Ponderosa pines.

Other things coming out of the wood work now that we are over half way include knapweed which is in full bloom all over the course.

Knapweed Left 5 Fwy

I've covered this pesky weed before (go here ) and not much has changed regarding it.  If you see it pull and we'll pick it up (hot spots are mostly on the back with the left of 14 fairway and the left of 17 fairway the worst).  I know that if we can treat these areas early in the spring with broadleaf herbicide we get pretty good control but its a case of getting the time and since I am the only guy with a applicators license I either have to do the application and be directly at the treated location if someone else is doing the application.  Either situation is not always an option when we are starting up.  

The river .... lets talk about it later I am already pretty bummed out.

It Won't Look Any Better.......

Getting While You Can

 Over 3" rain last week, everything fertilized, mostly caught up on mowing, and nice weather all combined are making the course look pretty nice.  If the forecast is correct we will be showing moisture stress by this time next week so now would be the best to bring out a guest to show off the place.  I went around and took some pictures of the way things look now and I will use them as a compare and contrast a little later on (again, assuming the forecast for +36 for highs +19 for lows is correct).

Things of late to note could be the tree falling on 2 fairway.

Wedging the Tree Away From Fwy

Giving the Faller a Bit of Help

Removing Logs to the Sawmill

 

Beetle Damage Under the Bark

Both trees were Ponderosa Pine which mostly likely means it was the Western Pine Beetle (vs. Northern).  We've haven't been running a enough fall staff for the last couple years to keep on top of the scouting, falling and removing infected trees and my hunch is there is more out there. 

Some More Fall Activities Picts

So far the fall has been fairly typical work and weather wise.  We were able to deep tine all the greens again this fall with 3/4 inch solid tines.  Because we've been using this type of aeration for a few years now we were able to go as deep as 10 inches on certain greens with no detrimental effects.

Verti Drain Operating on #1 Green

Some of the greens (those with a little or no substance to their root zone) have a tendency to overly "puff up" when aerated at too deep a depth.  For those greens we lessened the depth and slowed the tractor which seemed to help keep the turf in place.  This time out we also rolled the greens with the tractor and aerator after we finished aerating and that really seemed to help lessen the "puffiness" factor.

Rolling to Smooth the
Green Surface

Depending on our spring and the health of the greens after this winter, we will have to aerate again early in the season to make up for missing this falls hollow core aeration.  I am still not sure how that will work itself out but the hope is that by pulling a core early on in the spring the greens will be able to recover from both styles of aeration in the time it would normally take for the surfaces to recover from just the fall's deep tine.

If there is any good news this fall it could be the fact that we found very few trees (just over 20) attacked by the pine beetle.  The flip side is the fact that some of those trees we found were very large Ponderosa's that dominate the scenery a KGC.

Cleaning up Ponderosa on
#6 Fairway

Hauling Logs From
#15 Green

As before, we will take the infected trees and process them in some fashion so as to kill the beetle.  

Not so exciting times

My dad says there is a Chinese curse that says something along the lines of "may you live in exciting times". Keeping that phrase in mind I can honestly say over the past couple weeks we've been blessed and definitely not cursed. Events on the the golf course have been extremely typical almost leaning towards boring. With summer staff leaving we don't really have the staff for small projects such as the paving block work we've been doing around the ball washer areas at the tees. Most of our time has been spent doing routine maintenance.

I've done a very preliminary scout of "beetle trees"and have found more. The most disturbing find so far is next to 6 green where a very large Ponderosa pine was hit hard by the beetle. This is the first large tree on the front nine to be attacked. Its location next to the road, power lines, and 6 green may result in us having to remove some extra trees to get it to fall where it will do the least damage. We will start to visit the usual areas and by the end of September I should have a good idea of how many trees we need to fall.

Dying Ponderosa on the Right

The club is hosting a regional tournament this Saturday so we won't start anything too crazy but be forewarned it is time to aerate. We will start by picking away at the fairways and then start in on the greens by the third or fourth week in September. There is some projects bubbling away on the back burner and if those heat up I may need to move regular fall preparation up a week or two.

River Watch

August 28

September 8

We've been running on one pump (about 230 GPM) since the end of August and have been able to keep up with the golf course demand. This past Monday we had the first low wet well shutdown. I was able to adjust the flow down to 180 GPM but that only lasted a day and the pumps shutdown again. I had to decrease the flow further to 120 GPM to keep the one pump filling the reservoir . We brought down a crew of 4 and after a couple of hours of moving rocks and we able to increase the flow near the intake allowing me to operate the pumps at around 180 GPM. This is only the first of many visits to keep the water flowing so stay tuned for more updates.

Pine Beetle

Blue Dots are Old Infections
Red X's are Infections for 2010
Updated 10/25/10
(click on picture for better view)

The past couple weeks I've been out marking trees that have been attacked by the pine beetle, same as last year (see "Typical Fall Work" 11/13/09).

Pitch Tubes on Lodge Pole
are Signs on Beetle Attack

Right now we have close to 57 green attack trees to remove. (Green attack refers to living pine trees that were attacked this season and are infected with the beetle now. Red attack refers to dead pine trees from previous seasons that no longer contain the beetle but still have their needles. Greys are dead standing trees with all their needles fallen off. More reading and info at: http://www.rdno.ca/pine_beetle/index.php and http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/mountain_pine_beetle/bbbrochure.htm)

Infected trees will be cut and processed (burning or milling) to kill the overwintering beetle/larvae. We monitor previous infections sites and walk the entire property (including the land owned by the golf club near the river) looking for new infection sites. A point of interest this year is the unfortunate circumstance of finding more Ponderosa hits this year. We have found infected Ponderosa's in the past but they have been small trees. This year all the new hits have been on large trees. If there is any good news all but one of the infected Ponderosa's are located in the deep rough.

Typical Fall Work

This past week had us scouting, falling, limbing, and removing pine trees infected with Mountain pine beetle and the Western pine beetle.

We had to remove around 65 trees from infected pockets scattered throughout the golf course property. This is amount of trees is similar to previous years. Areas where trees were removed include 1 fairway, 10 fairway, 12 tee, 14 tee, 14 fairway, and 16 fairway. Most of these areas are known to us so we knew where to start looking and weren't to surprised when we found infected trees. We were a little surprised to find more of the Ponderosa (Bull Pine) had been hit by the Western pine beetle. So far the Western seems to have a preference for the smaller trees in "out of the way" locations.

Logs from the trees were stacked in staging areas and then transported to a local mill.


Other tree work this time of year includes the application of drain tile to tree limbs to stop the deer from damaging the bark with their antlers.