#12 Green Tree Removals

In case you hadn't noticed, the back portion of #12 green has been affected by a fungal turf disease.  This disease, called fusarium, is a common disease that northern turf managers deal with this time of year.  Fall conditions are ideal for it to develop and if left untreated it can spread quite rapidly and result in significant turf loss.  It can be treated chemically, but quite often it is more effective to determine what factors are exactly causing the outbreak and once that is accomplished, begin improving the overall conditions to try and prevent the disease from developing.  This practice is called IPM (Integrated Pest Management) and is a crucial part of our operation when dealing with turf pests.  The IPM Council of Canada defines IPM as: "A process that uses all necessary techniques to suppress pests effectively, economically and in an environmentally sound manner.  IPM employs a two-pronged approach: managing the plant environment to prevent problems and using thresholds to decide how and when to treat pests."  We put our IPM strategies to use at #12 green earlier this week.

One of the major contributing factors in the development of fusarium is moisture; excessive moisture to be exact.  The cedars and birch trees that wrap around the back of #12 green create very shady conditions and don't allow for much air movement at all.  The prolonged shade and lack of air movement cause the morning dew to "hang around" much longer than we'd like it to.  The turf at the back of the green remains moist and disease is inevitable.  

Due to the design of the green surround and the importance of the cedars with regards to playability and safety, removing the cedars was certainly NOT an option.  However, removing the scraggly birch trees to the left of the green was definitely an option and being that those were the trees that caused the shade in the morning, when sunlight is most important for photosynthesis, the decision to remove them was an easy one.  Here are some photos to illustrate the difference from removing the 3 birch trees:

shaded portion of #12 green infected with fusarium

only the shaded portion of the green is infected with fusarium

3 birch trees to be removed - 1 dead and 2 dying

the back portion of the green now receives plenty of morning sunlight

As you can see, removing the birch trees made a significant impact and we anticipate seeing improved turf conditions on the back of #12 green very soon.  We also removed a very weak cedar behind the larger cedars on the #13 side while we had the chainsaw and cleanup crew out there.  We will continue with tree removals on the course when we have the time and labour forces to do so.