Another One Is Done

As the wildlife activity increases another green has been shut down for the season.  The latest green to be closed is #6 which was one of the most heavily damaged ones last year.

The fencing has been put up and but unfortunately some minor damage has already occurred. That being said the entire green was dormant seeded and then covered with a heavy layer of sand to help insulate and protect the green throughout the winter.  The hoof marks appear to have only scraped away the turf leaving the crown of the plants in tact which should allow for a full recovery.  If not new seed is in place to help repair these areas come spring.

Additional greens will be closed as deemed by the wildlife traffic.  Eventually they will all be shut down by the 1st of December.

Close Up of Hoof Damage

Heavy Sand Topdressing

Mocking Up

Today we began the process of finalizing the Elk fencing installation. As the parts required for the fencing continue to arrive, we finally had the chance to put together a working version of my concept plan.  What you see in the picture above  will become the future of our winter greens protection program.

All things considered the design will stay essentially the same but minor tweaks will be done to ensure the Elk remain on the out side looking in.

What Are The Blue Dots?

What are the blue dots around some of the greens are for ? The answer is that we are marking the locations for fence posts that will installed to support material to protect the greens from winter wildlife damage. The post will be spaced every 25 feet to provide enough support for the fencing material. Once we have layed out the initial post configuration we will then locate the underground irrigation system components before any posts are installed. 

You all are aware of the damage that was caused to the greens by the Elk last year and we will be doing all that we can to avoid a repeat of that damage. Currently the greens are scheduled to go on temporaries beginning December 1st as they are every year, at this time the greens will be closed off with fencing for the remainder of the winter season. There is also a chance that some of our more trafficked greens will get fenced off before the December 1st date, the most likely candidates for this would be greens #4,#6 and #10. In one night the damage caused by the Elk can require month’s of recovery time that includes wasted man hours installing thousands of replacement turf plugs to the greens.

These fences will be eight feet tall in order to keep the wildlife from jumping over them. We are still currently engineering the final configurations of the fences, but at this point they will be constructed out of steel fence post and tennis wind screens will serve as the fence boundaries. The reason we are using a fabric as the fencing itself is so that we can still easily access the greens during the winter for maintenance purposes. A more rigid material will become unworkable in the middle of winter when temperatures are routinely in the single digits.

Once again the Board has stepped up and provided the necessary funding for this extremely important project of protecting our greens. In the next several weeks we will begin to install the post for the fences at the greens locations in advance of the ground freezing. These post will be in play, so if your line is effected you will be allowed to take a drop from the obstruction. These post will be an inconvenience for some of our later season play, but I believe the benefits will far outweigh the damage that is caused annually. The wildlife is spectacular to see up close and personal, but it comes with at a price.