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Taking out Trees at Weeks Park
May 04, 2007So I see this story in the paper the other day...and honestly, I don't know if I should be happy or mad.
Judging by my tendancy to find every tree on the course and either be behind them or below them, I'd say just take out all of the trees on the course and lets go with a true links style layout.
You'd be suprised how much fun it is to play a course with huge mounds between the fairway. If you duffers out there haven't ventured towards the metroplex to play at Split Rail Golf Course in Aledo...do yourself a freaking service and get a tee time.
Another great links style course is the Roy Kizer Course in Austin....where the 4A high school state golfers will compete next week. Few trees (if any)....lots of water and you'd better bring your target golf game, because you'll need it.
But this kinda makes me mad.... Weeks Park was able to move many of the small trees on the course, which is fine and dandy...but the bigger, more mature, more impressive trees couldn't be saved and the course is going to lose about 1/3 of the trees on the layout.
What...we couldn't draw a golf hole that included big pretty trees? I have no problem with a big pretty tree in the middle of the fairway. That's called....CHARACTER.
There are plenty of famous golf courses with huge trees right smack dab in the way of stuff. Heck, there are plenty of not so famous courses with trees hugging the fairways.
Any idea how long it's going to take for some of these small trees to grow into a nice big impressive intimidating fairway-guarding obstacle.... it isn't going to be by the time the course re-opens, whenever that is.
Now...I understand that the course lost a lot of trees in 1979 because of the tornado. I'd love to see some photos of the course pre-tornado if anybody has them.
Anyways..here's the story, read what you will.
The Weeks Golf Course renovation project could result in the loss of a third of the trees currently on the course.Weeks Park is undergoing a $3.6 million face-lift that is expected to rearrange six holes where the front nine now stand and add a driving range and short-game practice area. The back nine is also set to see improvements.
The clubhouse, cart barn and maintenance complex will get a $700,000 makeover.
All of it means some trees are going to be lost. Assistant City Manger Matt Benoit, who is in charge of the project for the city, said most of the trees will be saved.
"Everyone would have loved to have seen every tree that was in harm's way get relocated," he said. "We didn't have the time. We didn't have the money."
Already, 700 to 800 trees have been relocated. Once the renovations are complete, those trees should return to the links. The relocation work for trees with stump diameters of 6-8 inches was contracted at a rate of about $160 per tree for the round trip. The city's parks department is handling trees with stump diameters of 1-3 inches. Of the more than 700 trees, 350 are being kept behind the maintenance building of the golf course. The rest have been sent to Hamilton Park.
"We had to pick the trees that, based on our knowledge, had the highest likelihood of surviving the move," Benoit said.
But some larger trees were caught in the middle of a tight situation.
"We couldn't have moved the biggest of the big trees," Benoit said.
Renovation efforts began last year as city officials hoped to make the course more appealing and capable of drumming up enough fee revenue to support itself. Bids for construction were accepted in late December 2006 with a reopening date aimed at October. But the new golf design didn't arrive until the end of January. That put staffers under pressure. The trees were set to bud in the spring and the plants would quickly die once they were uprooted.
"We didn't have months and months to work on this," Benoit said, explaining that pressures included having to move trees in February, the late bidding and moving the plants before the course renovation began.
Preparations - such as identifying trees, finding a place to put them, getting irrigation set up - all took time. Many trees near planned fairways were set to be removed. But every tree still on the course isn't doomed.
"Not every tree left on the course now will be removed," Benoit said.
Medical/military reporter Michael Hines can be reached at (940) 720-3456 or by e-mail at HinesM(at)TimesRecordNews.com
Caption:
A bulldozer operator backs away from a pile of broken sidewalk slabs Wednesday at the Weeks Park Golf Course.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 01:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
