As the year comes to an end, I have been thinking about selective tree removal and tree management plans, mainly because many across the country choose to selectively remove coniferous trees to manage them inside their homes for the holidays!
When conducting Course Consulting Service visits, I often get comments from stakeholders about how trees on the course were not an issue in the past even though they seem to be causing trouble today. Previous superintendents were able to grow healthy, playable turf with the current tree population, so why is there a problem now? In response, I often mention that trees do in fact get bigger with time. This is a simple but often overlooked truth to consider when evaluating trees on golf courses, whether for selective tree removal or strategic back-planting.
Selective Tree Removals
I recommend evaluating tree populations every several years, especially in high-impact areas near tees, fairways and putting greens. Look for trees in poor positions and those that did not impact turf health or playability before, but do now. With little play, winter is a great time to evaluate your tree population. Once you have assessed current issues and the potential for problems in the future, you can conduct targeted removals to improve turfgrass health and playability by reducing shade and root competition and improving air movement.
Strategic Back-Planting
Back-planting is the process of planting trees where they can grow and eventually replace older trees in the future. Like any tree planting, this process needs to be well thought out to place trees in optimal positions. Trees should not be planted close enough to affect any high-impact areas, and the mature size of the tree dictates its proper position. I often encounter back-planting efforts that did not consider that trees get bigger over time. When trees are planted too close to one another, it often results in poor tree health and issues like deformed canopies, dieback or even tree death. If a tree is being back-planted to fill the future void of an aging tree, it is important to remove the aging tree before the back-planted tree grows too large and develops a deformed canopy as it competes for sunlight.
If tree management or planting is on the horizon at your course, make sure to consider the future size of each tree when making decisions so you can ensure they are in the correct position and prevent headaches down the road. For help with trees on the golf course, reach out to your regional USGA agronomist.
Central Region Agronomists:
Zach Nicoludis, regional director, Central Region – znicoludis@usga.org
Tom Gould, agronomist – tgould@usga.org