Dinosaur Trail Turf Care: Changes

Alot of action has been going on the last two weeks out on the course at Dinosaur Trail. The most noticeable being the implimentation of our tree management plan. Two weeks ago I walked the course and marked out trees and or limbs that I thought should be removed due to a few issues. These being playability, agronomic impact, and safety . When the front nine was built they decided to use the fast growing Northwest Poplar to line the course. A common problem that occurs is that a tree mangement plan is not implimented soon enough to deal with these problematic trees. Many of the trees on the front nine have exceeded their lifespan by over 10 years and their shallow roots cause issues on all playing surfaces. As well they have started to rot from the inside out and pose a safety issue as it is not uncommon to see massive limbs breaking off after only a moderate wind.

Video of the tree on #7 coming down

The Tree was 3'6" in diameter

With the help of an arbourist and a man lift we removed the 2nd largest tree on the property, and 70 to 80 limbs on other trees. I could have removed alot more, but I had to remember that we would be responsible for all cleanup as well. A huge thanks goes out to Lyle Anderson, for volunteering his time, labour, fuel, and trailer to remove all of the tree material from the golf course. Without him we would still be trying to cleanup the tree debris.

Lyle, Joel, and Dean cleaning up the trees

A crack in the tree very close to the base

Removing and old storage tank

As far as other changes at the course, I have started to clean up the shop yard, removing old broken down vehicles and storage tanks that were used in the past. We have added a sea- can for fertilizer storage and have put new tee markers into use on the back nine that utilize iron ore rock found on the course. Due to the minimal number (23) and smaller sized bunkers on the course I have switched to hand raking the bunkers instead of using a mechanical trap rake. Finally we will begin to impliment a foliar feeding program and the use of growth regulators, something that has not been used on the course in the past.