Pond Issues

All bodies of water are different, different sizes, shapes, depths and many other factors that make no two ponds alike.  This means that they are all different ecosystems.

We have 7 different water retainage areas on the course. I will go over each of them in this post and describe the issues that we have, some historical information and the efforts that we have put forth.

#7

First off #7 has a very special place in my heart, My beautiful wife and I were married on the edge of that pond.  It is one of the 2 fondest memories that I have, the other being the birth of my son.  This hole is also the "signature" hole for the golf course.  It is a retainage pond.  It has had issues in the past with algae, not bad issues but issues none the less.  This year there was a die off of fish in that pond.  The cause of the fish die off was a lack of dissolved oxygen in the water column.  There were several factors that led to the oxygen burn.  The main factors were water temperature, having a fountain missing, and a hot stretch of summer followed by a cold rainfall.  The process of a fish kill is a rough process.  When any organism in a water body dies the decomposition process burns oxygen in the water, so a body of water that is low in oxygen gets lower.  It's like rolling a boulder down a hill the further it goes the harder it is to stop.  However, we had employees out there cleaning up dead fish with pool skimmers trying to keep the amount of decomposition and odor to a minimum.  I think we did a great job responding to the issue in a timely fashion.
A brief history on this pond.  It has gone dry 2 times since the construction that I know of.  Once was about 5 years ago and once was well before my time. 
The homeowners that live around the ponds have been managing  and maintaining the fountains in the ponds for the last 10+ years.  We met with that "Pond HOA" and they have given us the control of the fountains.  They did a great job with those fountains for a long time.  We have already changed out the nozzles on the units to throw more water and create more oxygen and surface cooling.  we have gone from 400 Gallons Per Minute to 1500 GPM, a large difference.  I am currently investigating different fish species to introduce to this area.  predatory fish like bass to keep the number of smaller fish down, triploid grass carp to help keep the ponds clean and we have used tilapia in the past to help combat algae.  I am also researching colorants for this area to block UV rays and prohibit algae populations.

#9

This pond has no issues.  It used to be a hazard on the course that had dried up because of the inability to fill it.  Since gaining that ability the pond has sealed up and is holding water nicely and is again a hazard.

#11

This pond is the start of a storm water runoff system.  The water that runs into it comes from HWY 231 and surrounding areas.  It used to be one of the sources of our irrigation water.  It has issues with primrose, an aquatic plant that is easily controlled with 2,4-D or Diquat.  Both of these herbicides are acceptable to apply in water bodies and safe to fish.  Since it is a storm water system the water column is changed over frequently with large rainfall events.  I have simply not had the time to treat this pond lately and that's on me.  This pond is also about 4 feet deep and has about 3 feet of sediment in the bottom.

#12

This pond is on the far right as you drive in the neighborhood.  It is the same scenario as #11 an storm water collection system that used to be part of our irrigation source.  the pond on #11 feeds to #12 and It also gets fed by all surface runoff from areas south of this from Runnymeade Drive north.  So this pond gets double the input that #11 gets.  It is about 4 feet deep with a rock bottom.  UV rays penetrate it easily to allow algae and other plants to grow in it easily.  In the past there were major algae issues with this area.  The neighbors banded together that lived around this area about 9 years ago.  They purchased and installed 3 fountains with IHGC's blessing, 2 in #12 and 1 in #13.  These were small 110 volt fountains that did not exchange much water and could not cool off the water column because there is no cool water to draw from in the summer on a 4 ft deep pond.  After a while these fountains were just sucking up the muck on the bottom of the ponds and getting clogged up with debris.  They became more of a maintenance nightmare than they were worth.  It was a good effort but a poor fit for the process.
That being said we do not have an algae issue in this pond this year so much as we have a duckweed infestation.  Duckweed is a naturally occurring plant that is one of the smallest complete plants on earth.  It is about the size of a pencil tip.  If you are interested in researching the plant click on the highlighted name above and it will take you to Wikipedia.  The problem with duckweed is that it is very hard to kill in our environment  the plant already has a seed by the time it hits the surface and releases that seed when killed so surface herbicides, diquat, do not work well.  There is a product that I tried at the correct application rates, "Sonar".  This herbicide has the ability to treat the entire water column, kill plants and seeds.  Its issue is that it needs to be active in a body of water for 48 days and it is very expensive.  I estimate that our application was active for about 7 days before the rains flushed that chemical out of the water body.  It is really hard for me to justify spending someone else's hard earned money on a issue that is almost guaranteed no win scenario.  Do not misread that statement, that does not mean that I am not going to do anything about it, it means that I am going to be very careful about what I do.  I had attempted 3 diquat applications this summer and 1 sonar application.  You also have to remember the statement from #7 pond about organisms decomposing in relation to oxygen content.  So if we kill of all of the vegetative material in a 4 foot deep pond at once it will burn off oxygen and "shock" the pond thus potentially killing fish.  I have to follow the rule of thirds when treating the ponds as not to create a different problem.  the rule of thirds is to never treat a heavily invested pond by more than 1/3 of the surface area at one time as to protect the other ecology in that environment from damage.

#13

This is the closest pond to the road on the right as you drive in.  It is also part of the storm water runoff system and has the same issues as #12.  The duckweed moves with water and gravity, down stream.  This pond would have small algae blooms in the Spring each season as the temps came up.  But, it had one natural defense, it is a very deep pond with flow through.  The depth allowed the water to remain cooler and reduced the ability of UV rays to penetrate to the bottom and breed algae.

#18

This pond is on the left side of the entrance as you drive in the neighborhood.  It is our irrigation holding pond.  It contains IHGC's water once it is in this pond it is IHGC's and no one else's.  the brick house on 231 side is our pumping station.  It is state of the art and we are very proud of it.  The water in the pond is effluent water the same kind of water that many golf courses around the town and the world are trying to use.  We do this in order to reduce our environmental footprint.  We are not the first golf course to use effluent water and we will not be the last.  Effluent water can be from many different sources but ours is processed treated water.  It is not sewer nor has it ever been water that went down a toilet.  One quality and burden of Effluent water is that it contains nutrients Phosphorus particularly which is a key food source for algae.  Also the effluent is warmer and creates another algae breeding scenario.  You will notice that it can get kind of a pea soup look in the summer, this is green algae trying to bloom in the water column.  About 7 years ago in the infancy of our Effluent usage we had a complete coverage of algae on that pond.  After that we installed 2 Sonic Devices that emit ultrasonic sonar wavelengths that actually destroy the algae at a cellular level as it is trying to form.  These devices have done a great job in control of algae blooms.  Remember this is our irrigation source and we apply this water to the grass on the golf course so there is the concern of herbicide transference and damage to the course by herbicide applications in this pond.  I do not believe that we require any herbicide applications to this pond at this time.

#17

This pond is having trouble holding water at a certain depth  It is a small hazard pond on the course.  we may try to add some bentonite to the banks in the future to seal up any leaks.

This season we have had several complaints made to regulatory authorities with concerns about our water areas by neighbors of the course.  I have been working with TDEC since the complaints started on #18, 13 and 7.  They are well aware of the issues that we face.  I have explained with them what our management attempts are and have been.  They have agreed with my strategies.

There are other methods of algae control such as sub surface bubbler systems that release air at the bottom of the pond and help create aeration and circulation of the water.

I am happy to accept phone calls on the issues or any golf course related issue.  I can also be found on social media @bradmarcy on Twitter.

Winter is around the corner

We have now had a couple of light frosts so far this month even though our temps have been awesome so far.  But, those light frosts are a sign of things to come.  I am hearing forecasters predicting weather patterns that mimic last winter.  We all remember the trouble that we had with the tees and fairways this spring, and we don't want a repeat of that scenario next year. 
One of the things that I will be doing is reducing the amount of cart traffic that we will be allowing on the turf during dormant periods.  We may even see some of the holes get restricted back to cart path only if the weather patterns get bad.  I encourage some of our members to partner up on personal carts to decrease the amount of cart wear during the winter months.  I know its nice having everything in your cart where you want it but may be pile in with your playing partner once in a while to help the course be better in the spring. 
As you know, Hole #9 is now cart path only all of the time.  I have had people comment to me lately "did you over seed that hole".  The fairway on #9 looks so much better and greener because of the reduction in cart traffic, so the proof in in the pudding so to speak. 
We have also fertilized much heavier in some of the areas that were hit hard last winter.  The height of cut is currently up to 3/4" on the fairways and tees.  3/4" is our normal HOC in the fall.  I just made sure that we got to it a little sooner this year.  Both of these issues should help our chances of getting through the winter in a bad season.
In the end I have learned that it is my job to understand what Mother Nature is throwing at me and know how to react to the conditions.  I cannot change the weather I can only react to it. 
Just remember when it seems like its dry in the winter but its still "Path Only" that I am trying to protect the turf better than I did last year. 

Fairway Recovery 2014

It's been quite a while since I put anything on the blog.  I have been busy with many different facets of the golf course the last two months.

The last post I had was dedicated to the fairway damage from Winter Kill.  We tried seeding the fairways with Bermuda grass.  That was a big dud.  As soon as we finished seeding it rained for like a week and a half.  All of the low areas that were damaged from holding too much moisture continued to hold too much moisture.  My best guess is that the seed was either covered by debris and couldn't find the light of day, or it simply rotted in place.  After that experiment failed we decided to aerify a couple of the fairways and push the cored to the bad areas and use that vegetation to regrow the areas.  This was a successful method, very labor intensive but successful.  We had our worst fairway on #3 that had no grass on the front half of it, so aerifying was not an option.  We started cutting sod in house from rough areas that were going to be converted to native this fall.  This was even more labor intensive but at the same time productive.  In August we ran out of time and labor for cutting sod in house so we got 6 pallets of Bermuda for the biggest areas on #3 fairway.  Finally today we are laying the last few small spots on #3 to finish it up.  I am glad that the weather has been as cool as it has been this season.  The greens have been easier to maintain in this weather so that we could focus more on the fairways.

I think that one good thing has come from the Winter Kill.  We have seen what Hole #9 looks like when it has no cart traffic.  We actually have rough on the inside of the dog leg.  We have decided to keep the hole cart path only for the long haul to protect the character of the hole.

I know I've said it before and I'll say it again.  I hope never to go this long again without posting on this forum.

Tree Removal

This is the time of year that we take care of bigger projects that we can't accomplish during the growing season.  One of those projects are Tree removal.  Before I go any further let me say this,"I do not enjoy cutting down trees.  I do not look for reasons to remove trees that I don't like.  Tree removal creates a lot of work for me and my staff.".  That being said there are reasons that we have to remove trees and they are as follows; The tree poses a threat to a person or a structure., There is a shade Issue that cannot be cured by limbing up the tree., The inability to grow quality turfgrass due to shade issues., The tree blocks a sight line that can create a dangerous position for golfers.  We have 4 holes that we are currently working on tree removal. #'s 9, 10, 12, and 16.  All of the work that we did on #9 was to better open up the hazard (Pond) in the dogleg of the hole.  We also have had a very hard time in the past growing grass on the pond bank due to the heavy canopies that were present.  I hope to have those areas grown in next year instead of bare ground.  The removal of the trees along the pond on #9 also allows the golfer to have a better view of the green from further back in the fairway.  This ensures that there are no golfers on the green when a golfer hits in to #9 green.
We are currently working on Hole #10.  We have removed 4 large Cedar trees.  the first was closest to the tees on the right side of the cart path and overhung the path.  I did not want to remove this tree but it had a lateral crack or split through the limb over the path and was getting ready to come down naturally.

The before picture from #10

  As we cut the tree down we discovered that the tree was rotten throughout the trunk.  The three trees that we removed were on the right side of the hole from 150-100 yards out.  The reason that they were removed was the inability to grow grass in the area.
  The heavy cedars were creating the most of the shade problem in the area.  There are still about 5 Oaks in the area and one Hackberry.  There are still obstacles that you need to avoid as a golfer on that side of the hole.  Hopefully next year there will also be rough there to hit from.

The after picture from #10

What's happening with our ponds?

I have been getting the same question about our ponds all summer, so I figured I'd answer it in a public forum for anyone else who might be interested but may not see me to ask the question. 
What is going on with the ponds at the entrance?
Of the three ponds visible from the entrance drive, #'s 12, 13 and 18, one of them looks good.  Two of them look bad.  #12 has blown up with Algae like it had in 2011 and previous years.  #13 looks fine.  #18 is about 3.5' low right now. 
Starting with #12.  I refer to this as a pond, but it is more accurately described as a water retention area.  It was not designed to hold fish, feed livestock, or go swimming or canoeing in.  It was designed to make you afraid of hitting a golf ball into it.  The guys who built the pond while well intentioned were probably not aquatic experts and did not see the nightmare that they were creating.  This pond is 4 ' deep with a rock bottom (it cannot be dug any deeper).  When you have a pond that shallow light penetrates to the floor of the pond and creates an environment where algae can grow.  This is the same problem that this pond has had for a long time.  We found a solution last season with the Tilapia.  Unfortunately, I thought that a wait and see approach would be better on the pond this season to see how bad the problem came back.  It came back with a vengeance.  I was too late getting the Tilapia out and now we are resulting to chemical control methods.  If you are using chemical control methods why don't you spray it all out?  Great question!  Because when we kill aquatic weeds they sink and decompose under the surface of the water.  When Algae decomposes it uses oxygen.  Guess who else uses oxygen in the water....Fish.  There is not a lot of oxygen to be had in a 4' deep pond if we expend all of the oxygen on a plant burn off we will be left with floating stinking fish, and maybe if we're lucky get our picture on the front page of the newspaper.  So, we are progressively spraying out the algae around the banks about 1/8 of the surface area at a time.
#13 Pond.  It looks great!  This pond is 13 feet deep and has good deep banks the water is clear you can see strait to the bottom on a sunny day from on top of the rock wall.  I am not recommending that you go out on the rock wall, we frown upon that. 
#18 Pond.  This pond has been up and down all year.  right now it is down 3.5'.  The reason that it is so low is that our water line has been interrupted temporarily.  As you probably know we receive effluent water from General Mills across the river and have been for the last 4 years.  This year General Mills had a construction project that sat right on top of the pipeline that feeds #18 pond on their side of the river.  The pipeline was not built with the idea of supporting a structure in mind when it was originally built.  They had to dig up the pipeline.  Stabilize the ground with rock.  Install a new pipeline and finish off the grade with stable material.  This project was estimated to take 3-4 weeks.  With the conditions becoming extremely dry I estimate that the timeline will be closer to 3 weeks than 4.  This project was started somewhere around the 20th of August.  So, we are about two weeks into the project.  I know that the pond looks low right now, but I have seen it much lower before.  We are not at a critical level yet.  But if we do reach that point I'm sure that out partners at General Mills will find a way to temporarily relieve the issue if needed.
That's my over-worded answer to an simple five word question.

Pond Management

We have made great strides in cleaning up our water features on the course in the last year or two.  Last year our ponds and retention areas were the best that I have ever seen them look.  This year we have only 1 pond that has been giving us a headache, #12.  I was very optimistic that our management strategies from last year would carry over into this year, but that was not the case.  The algae blooms started coming out in late June because the temperatures have been so (I want to say mild but the correct terminology would be average) average.  In a hotter year i.e. 2012 the blooms would have started in April or May.  

Last year we used Red belly Tilapia as out control method for Algae on #11, 12, 13 and 18.  It worked great so we are doing the same this season, only on #12.  Here is a picture of what they look like.

 

 We purchased 30 lbs of fish for the pond.  They were delivered in a mobile aquarium.  It was essentially a very large ice chest with a hose running from the cooler to an oxygen tank similar to a helium tank that you might see at a party supply store.  Seen below.

Adding the fish to the pond is a very manual operation.  Scoop them out with a net, load them in a laundry bucket and dump them in the pond.  Seen below.

This pond is actually more of a retention area.  It's only about 4 feet deep and has a rock floor under the sludge on the bottom.  (We found this out when we were installing Wood Duck houses in the area.  It's hard to drive a post into rock!)  The pond being large and shallow means that it is easier for light to penetrate to the floor of the pond where algae blooms with light sources.  When we sprayed chemicals in the past to control the algae it did kill the algae.  But, as it decomposed and sank it was converted to a food source(fertilizer for the blooming algae, so it actually magnified the problem.  

It seems like the fish are the best method of control that we have found yet, and it reduces our chemical usage. 

There is a downside to this method of control.  The fish die.  They are warm water fish.  when we get a massive cold rain in November they will start floating, and there will be a lot more than 30 lbs worth.  I think that the trade off of smelly fish for 1 week is worth the clean ponds for the summer.

Please remember that we do not want any fishing in the ponds on the golf course.  there is effluent water in every pond on the course and are not meant for swimming or fishing.

A Great Project

I hope many of you notice the projects that we take on to try to enhance the wildlife here at the golf course.  We are not the only golf course that takes on these projects.  In all honesty, I see a lot of projects that other courses or organizations are doing and try to duplicate projects that are on our scale.  Items like: Purple Martin Houses, Wood Duck Houses, Bluebird Houses, Suet Cages, Mallard Hen Nesting Huts, Bat Houses are some of the small projects that we have taken on here
There has been a very neat project going on for a while now at another course in East Tennessee, Harrison Bay.  Superintendent Paul Carter has a Bald Eagle nesting program.  The program is to show the nesting patterns of the Bald Eagle.  That on its own sounds like a great program.  The Program is to SHOW the nesting patterns.  So, Naturally they installed a webcam at the nest and have a live feed on u-stream the link is provided below for anyone who is interested in viewing the nest.  Oh Yea, they just hatched two baby eagles.
Click here to view the Bald Eagle Cam at Harrison Bay
I wish that we could take on some projects such as this one but unfortunately we are not there yet.  But at least there are people out there that are trying to do great things such as this.

New Natural Areas

Our new natural areas are taking off great. I hope you have noticed the areas under construction over the past month in preparation for planting. They are on holes 3, 4, 15, 16 and 17. In total the area covered is about 5 acres. That will bring our total of naturalized areas up to about 13 acres. I know that some of you out there hate these areas I am doing my best to make sure that we are not interfering with "in-play" areas. Yes, we did put a large area in front of #3 Blue tee box, but I'm hoping that If your hitting off the Blue tees that you have no problem hitting over a native grass area. The same can be said for #17 Tee Area.  The Blue tees are the only teeing locations that will have to hit over a natural area. You will notice that the White tees on #17 have a clear path of Bermuda to hit over in front of the tee box. Please keep in mind that these areas are not to be driven through. I have already seen some tire tracks through the new area on #17 Tee. Just a reminder when we put ropes up somewhere it means that we don’t want you driving in that area. All of the pictures are from one week ago.  They are since 100% germinated.  We have to keep getting them water throughout the early stages of the grow in period.   

 Above is a view from #3 Blue Tees.  The whole areas from the tee to the spillway has been converted to Tall Fescue.  We have had a lot of problems with sinkholes in this area, and a natural area is a good solution to keep people out of the area and keeping ankles from getting broken.  To the right is a Picture looking back at the Tees from the Fairway.  These pictures were taken at 2 weeks after planting.

 

 This is a Picture of #4 on the fairway side of the cart path.  We have had Natural Areas on the right and left of #4 Tee for 2 years now.  After looking at that hole for a while I determined that the Fescue needed to be extended down the fairway side of the cart path to help draw your eye back to the hole.  There is not a lot of area covered here but, I think It will help you if you are a new golfer to the course setting up on this blind hole.

 This Picture to the right is another view of the area on the inside of the cart path on #4.  You may have noticed how wet it has been around the area lately.  After Seeding and fertilizing I applied 40 minutes of water per day to this area.  I don't want to risk the soil drying out during the grow in process.  I just turned the timers down to 10 minutes per day yesterday to help remove the standing water conditions on the cart path.

 Above is a view of the back of #15 Tee.  We have had the Fescue to the right side of #15 for 2 years also.  I am hoping with this area on the left side of the Tee that we can create a buffer area from Highway 231. 

On the Left is another view of the area at #15 Tee.  This picture gives you a better idea of how far it extends.

 Above is a picture of our brush pile behind #15 Green.  When we tilled this area up I was so surprised to find some of the best soil that I have ever seen in the state of TN.  This area floods easily.  The years of flooding have lead to a beautiful silty riverbed soil that is a perfect growing medium for the Tall Fescue.

To the right is a picture of #16 Tee box that is an extension of the natural area above that will completely enclose #16 Tee.

To the left is a picture of an 2 year old Tall Fescue area that is doing quite well at #17 Tee area.  Behind the trees you can see the front of the Blue Tee and the newly seeded natural area.  I think that this area is going to be the most dramatic area that we have done so far.  It will completely change the way the hole looks (not plays) from the Tee. 

Current State of the Greens

I haven't created a post on here in quite some time.  Primarily because I have been so consumed with the course this summer.  I don't know a P.C. term to describe our greens condition right now, but it's definitely not "immaculate".  We have endured a lot of different weather patterns this season; Early spring, Late frost, 90+ degrees for 2/3 of May, Heat that hasn't stopped all summer, Record breaking heat wave, Drought conditions, One of the wettest July's in a long time, massive amounts of rain fall in a short period of time.  All of these conditions turned into my worst nightmare. 
We were doing great through June into the first of July.  I recall checking root depths on the 5th of July and having a solid 4" of root mass.  Remember the 11 day stretch of 100-113 degree days.  We were good through that period, sure we had a few stress areas but we were okay.  Remember the massive amounts of rain that we got right behind the heat wave.  I think it was about 5" over a week.  Well, the 5" of rain was our downfall.  I was checking root depths shortly after the rains and we had about 1.5" of root mass.  It is a misnomer that greens only look bad when they are in need of water.  When they receive too much water they go through a process called "wet wilt".  You may remember they turned yellow and then thinned out, that was the wet wilt in process.  The plants essentially drowned.  Once the yellowing presented itself I immediately aerified the greens to get some oxygen in the soil.  Turned out, too little too late.  We had better weather patterns for the next 2 weeks.  This weekend we got hammered with 2.5" of rain.  I had our greens aerified again Monday.  But I fear it's, too little too late again. 
Hopefully, most of the damaged areas we will be able to "push" really hard with fertilizer to get them to fill back in.  There are some areas that we will have to reseed; #4, #8, #12, PG.  This will be a long process of regaining turf.  I am doing everything that I can to keep you playing on the correct playing surface.  I am hoping that the greens do not get any worse, because we may be looking at temporary greens if they do.  hopefully we can push through the remainder of the year get them back playable for next year. 
Please understand that it pains me terribly to have to work on something that reflects poorly on myself.

Aububon Projects

We have been working on some Audubon International related projects here lately. When the weather gets bad, and we have a chance to work inside, we have been making Wood Duck houses. As of today we have 5 of them out on the course. Two of them on #7 pond, two of them on #18 pond and one on #12 pond.

They were built at virtually no cost of materials. We got the plans from an online source. We got the lumber from my family farm, where we cut fallen trees for reuse in our saw mill. We went to a local metal recycling place and found some old 1.5" X 12' fence posts for $1.83 each. The mounting brackets cost $0.50 each at the local box store. I have some installation pictures below.

If you or someone you know would be interested in a project of this nature, please don't hesitate to give me a call. I'll be happy to help.

This is the finished product on #12 pond.

Here we have Neil and Spencer trying not to fall out of the boat while mounting this Wood Duck house.


This is the mounting pole going into the pond on #12. There is A LOT of rock in the bottom of this pond we found out. It took a while to find a place where they could drive the posts into the pond floor.