Wood chip pile

Though this picture is interesting because of the flooding,
in the background you can also see the wood chip pile
prior to any reclamation work.

Several years ago there were two events that devastated many trees across the property: Derecho and the herbicide Imprelis. Between the two, many trees were lost and the cleanup is still ongoing. There was a large wood chip pile behind 3 green, along the wood line between 4 and 15 tees. This was debris that had been chipped during the cleanup process. It was an eyesore that slowly became buried behind other priorities. This winter and spring we were able to reclaim the area to a more natural state.

Most of the wood chips in this particular pile were from trees that had been killed by Imprelis herbicide. Because of the remnants of the herbicide present in the wood, the mulch could not be used for any purpose around any plants, shrubs, or other trees without the possibility of killing the healthy plant. The grounds department has several “maintenance roads” around the golf course. These are small shortcuts that we use to get from one place to another without using the regular cart paths. They are constructed from wood chip mulch exactly like the debris of which we needed to dispose. We put a top-coat layer of new mulch over several of our existing maintenance roads using these wood chips. We even were able to build an entirely new maintenance road behind 6 tee using the same material. By doing this we were able to use almost the entire pile without wasting anything. The remainder of the pile was graded smooth.

Wood chip pile after regrading and early seedling germination

Once the pile had been leveled and the area looked natural again, we did not want the site to be just bare wood chips. This would have been just a flat version of the pile that had been ugly to look at in the first place. Luckily, the bottom layer of the wood chip pile had degraded so much that it had actually turned into decent soil. So, we selected a very hardy seed mix to plant into the area. We spread the seed, fertilized with an organic fertilizer, and dragged the seed into the soil in mid-March. 

By early April we had seed germinating. By early May the grass was growing well.

Grass is several inches tall in this picture

With minimal inputs we were able to restore the wood chip area to a natural grass area to match our other low-maintenance areas around the property. While this work did not affect the way the course plays, we were able to improve the aesthetics. We took an area that looked particularly bad, and not only made it look better, but we also were able to use some of the material around the course.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

When you splash bunker sand onto the green after your shot, please brush away any large piles or clumps that may have ended up on the green.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org