Tree Removal during the summer

One of the things I hate to do in the summer time is remove trees that did not survive the winter or died during the season. The removal of a tree takes our focus away from managing our turf. During the winter is the best time to remove trees because of limited turf work, less golfers on the course, and frozen turf which helps to reduce damage when a tree must be dropped.

Over the next few months, we will be evaluating trees that are excessively damaged or have large sections of dead or dying branches which could ultimately lead to the removal of that tree in the proper time of the year. I like to leave a snag tree for birds to roost or peck for insects but in most cases, these trees do not fit in the manicured look that is expected at our club. There are a couple of more heavily wooded areas around the driving range and our maintenance building which lend us the ability to leave a dead tree standing for our fine feathered friends to nest or devour a few insects.

Below are a couple of pictures showing the dropping of the old Oak tree at the bottom of #13 fairway/rough. We were going to try to pull the old tree back so it did not fall into the wet area but decided to go ahead and let gravity take it the way it wanted to go. It actually dropped nicely and did not create too much damaged in the wet area.

We also dropped a couple of small ash trees which died to the front right of 16 green near the crab apple trees. Skip, Tom and Jose are pictured below and they completed the work once it was on the ground.

We have a couple of large trees that have died along Lucas and Hunt Road which need removal but those trees will have to wait until winter. We might possibly need some assistance from our tree service since power lines and the cemetery fence and plots could be in direct line of fire if the trees are not topped first.