13 Feb Why are there snowmobile tracks on the golf course?
Greetings from Golf Course Maintenance!
This winter has offered an abundance of snow on the Frost Creek property to date! Good winter snow coverage provides protection from winter desiccation, as well as plenty of snowmelt to flush the root zone of our turf. Natural rain/snow water has a pH of around 5.5 and is ideal for growing healthy turfgrass. We’ll take every bit we can get!
Last season, the course sustained fairly minimal vole damage compared to previous seasons. In the winter, voles, (small rodents) tunnel around under the snowpack and are fond of eating our healthy turfgrass. Unfortunately, it seems like vole populations have a cyclical tendency, but we do our best to help control them with some simple practices. Each fall we mow the native edges to remove winter vole habitat and keep them away from our maintained turf. Additionally, we pack the snow along the native edges each winter with a snowmobile. We do this to create a barrier of dense snow that these rodents have a hard time burrowing through. It’s not a fail proof practice but it’s another tool we use to help mitigate damage to the course.
So, if you see someone out on the course in the winter on a snowmobile it is our maintenance team trying to reduce vole impact. Snowmobiling in Frost Creek is not a new winter activity so don’t get any brilliant ideas!
In the meantime, enjoy what is left of winter, get some fresh air and we will see you in a few months.
Derrick