Tree Work

What a strange start to the "winter" that we've had in southern Wisconsin.  Sure, winter doesn't officially start until December 21, but in recent years, we've had significant early December snowfalls that made it feel very winter-like.  It's hard to imagine that Christmas is only 11 days away, and I, for one, hope that it's a white Christmas.  With the lack of white stuff, we've been able to get around the course with relative ease (save for a couple of significant rain events), and as such, our tree trimming and removal list has been shrinking rapidly in recent weeks.  From our perspective, it's great to get this work done now because it's much more difficult to find time during the growing season for this kind of work.  Plus, the trees clean-up much more easily when they are leafless.  Much of our work has been focused on removing large ash trees that were safety hazards and/or overcrowded.  For more information on our recent tree management activities, the January Divot will have a more detailed article.  Below are a couple of examples of trees that we've taken down recently.

This summer, I took the random picture above and noticed that two large ash trees between 13 and 17 block quite a bit of the view to the lake from the clubhouse.  This week, one of the trees was removed, and as you can see from the picture below, a significant portion of the lake is now visible.

A large portion of the removed tree broke off 2-3 years ago, and the wound was rotting and making the tree a safety hazard.  Thus, regardless of view, its removal was necessary.

Last week, another large ash tree by 5 green was removed.  The base of this tree had a significant amount of rot, as well.

When the tree fell, it split apart where it was rotting.

Before (above) and after (below) the tree near the right side of the bunker was removed.