Exposed

Tuesday evening, quite a storm rolled through the valley. There was a lot of rain further down valley but mostly wind attacked the golf course. By 5 pm, we lost two trees on the course. Shortly after that a second wave came back through and knocked down eight more trees. Our weather stations clocked winds at 80 mph.

When a golf course sustains those kinds of winds it is normal to lose that many trees, especially in a golf course setting. Open areas such as fairways can leave trees exposed to become victims of powerful winds.

Cutting up and cleaning tree debris was not exactly what we had in mind doing Thursday morning, but the staff responded very well. Most of the debris was cut and cleaned before golfers had a chance to view the mess.

Not Just Anyday

I have had the opportunity to manage a few transplanted pine trees in the past but never a tree this size. Today the Town of Vail completed a feat that can be difficult to pull off and kudos to all that were involved. The town's public works department needed to transplant a healthy 50 foot spruce tree and the golf course was the right place. Today it has a real nice home on the 4th hole. This beautiful specimen will not only enhance the beauty of the hole, but help protect Vail Valley Drive from from golf balls. Too many times we have had close calls with pedestrians, cars, bikers and home owners.

We seemed to have every public employee in town helping out with the move. The tree came from the corner of the south frontage road near the Lionshead parking structure. A tree this size can not be "spaded" like we see so many times. Spruce trees do not normally have deep roots, so the moving company was able to excavate two feet deep around the drip line of the tree. Next they dug a hole about 15 feet next to the tree to provide space for metal pipes that are slid underneath the tree. I use the word "slid" loosely as it was no small task.

The pipe installation severs all connections with the earth and the root ball is wrapped in burlap and wire mesh. Then the tree can then be picked up by a crane and ready for transport.

That's where we picked up today for the fun stuff. After some tedious work to remove the tree from the ground, the tree was placed on a "low boy" flat bed truck. Slowly, the truck maneuvered through some of the hilly streets in town to get it to the golf course. The crane had to set up again near the new location and prepare to transplant the tree.

Prior to planting, a 16 foot diameter hole was dug to accept the tree. Careful unloading and placement was taken by the moving company and the planting began. By 7pm tonight, the guy wires were in place and the tree was mostly back filled. The metal pipes remain in the ground, due to the proximity to the street, other trees and utilities there was no room to dig an extra hole to remove them. There are no ill effects leaving them in the ground.

Tomorrow will complete the move which includes more dirt, a tree skirt of straw and a mulch covering. Finally we will set up irrigation and begin the recovery stage. The tree should take about 220 gallons of water per week and an organic nutrient product to help the tree gain root mass.

I would like to thank all of those who helped made this an easy and safe process. Most of them are Town of Vail employees and some of our own staff at the golf course and VRD. It is comforting to work with great professionals that achieve success. Now it is up to us to make sure this baby survives!

Tree Clearing

Tom Talbot and his staff from the Town of Vail have been doing a fabulous job removing dead pine trees on the course. Friday the crew came back to #3 to remove and mulch a dead tree near the tee boxes.

Their help and willingness to comply with the golfers on the course has been fantastic. They never want to upset a golfer or interrupt with their game. When the fire crew is on the course the golfers are notified and the specific area may be altered for the safety. Their work is certainly appreciated.

If the GCM staff were responsible for removing all of these trees over the past 4-5 years we would not be getting much of anything else done around the course. But, we would be really good and taking down trees!

Drip

Tony Giroux has been planning this project out since he returned from Turf School. Tony is making some slight adjustments to the irrigation system.

We planted 78 new trees around the course at the end of last season. Tony has begun installing drip irrigation lines to each trunk.
Pictured here is the valve used to tie into a 2 inch lateral line. The valve reduces the pressure and into a 1/2 inch flexible pipe. The pipe is run by every tree and tacked down to stay in place. At each tree an emitter is installed into the pipe allow water to seep out. The nozzles used release 1 or 2 gallons per minute (gpm), depending on tree size. Extra communication wire was initially installed near these valves so drip lines could run alone from the central computer.

This has been a nice learning experience for Tony. We plan on doing more tree planting in the future as we continue developing our master plan.

Leaves Are Changing

It's getting to be that time of year. Golden hillsides are upon us with the aspen leaves changing over the next couple of weeks. Don't forget to have your camera with you while playing the course.