Designed by Nev Lyons

Tree Harvesting Outcome

21/05/10

1.  The removal of tree material from the golf course is almost completed; there are a few large logs still to go and some branch material and pine cones still being picked up.  The point has almost been reached where any material remaining on the course is just going to be left where it is to decay over time.   Most of this material is in areas at a significant distance from fairways.

2.  The scraping of residue in the largest harvest areas back to the stump lines has been completed, so we now have bare areas transitioning to areas containing pine needles, cones etc.

3.  About 110 stumps that were highly visible on the course and closest to fairways have been removed by grinding.  Some remaining stumps will be cut lower by chainsaw, but otherwise all stumps presently on the course are going to be left, to remove once they decay (about 2 years)

4.  Repairs to damaged turf have started, focussing initially on fairways, and then on the worst truck wheel ruts in the  rough, especially in areas where balls are most likely to be played.   An aerovater will be used in some areas to loosen compacted and uneven turf, which can then be rolled smooth with a heavy vibrating roller.

5.  The old pit beside 13 green has been filled in.  There is now a new pit for disposing of tree material, located in the gully to right of 11th fairway.  This area will be marked GUR with stakes.

6.  Regrassing of all bare areas, and over sowing of all rough and all fairways where needed is planned for the coming spring, subject to successful funding application.    The cost for all seed and drilling is in the ballpark of $20,000 but the Greens Committee view is that this important job should be done properly, not cheaply.

7.  Work is progressing on widening and repairing the path from 13 green to 14 tee.  Some other paths damaged by the harvest operation are also on a list of jobs for the mid-week volunteers to do.

8.  Some replanting of trees is intended but this will happen after some careful planning of locations and species.

9.  Some new bunkers are being contemplated (eg possibly for 10th and 13th greens, 15th and 17th fairways) but not in the short term and only after a consultation with members.

10.  8th tee block is to be extended to the west - this can happen soon with very little or no expenditure.

11.  The Macrocarper beside the pump shed (between holes 2 and 3) will be removed to prevent root damage to the pump/well.

12.  The repositioning of the 11th tee to the east of the toilets is proposed, to solve the safety issue with tee shots from 10th.  This plan would necessitate removal of some of the plantation pine trees near 11th tee.

1.  On 1st of June the present local rule of free drop in harvest areas etc should be rescinded and the entire golf course reverts to "play as it lies".  This is because the tree removal and subsequent cleanup will be essentially completed.   A few areas of remaining GUR will be marked with stakes.  Future developments, such as regrassing bare areas, will be temporarily marked GUR where necessary.

Notice to all Members & Visitors

"Play the Ball as it Lies" on the Entire Golf Course

With effect from June 1st onwards, the Match Committee has now rescinded the temporary local rule which since late-January has permitted a free drop away from the harvest area where a ball came to rest in harvest areas, within vehicle tracks or on harvested tree material.

Thank you to all members and visitors for your understanding and patience during the tree removal operation.

We now revert back to Normal rules of golf.

Balls coming to rest in the recently harvested areas.

Play the ball as it lies.

If you stray off the fairway, on some holes expect some difficult lies.

This is a fundamental concept of the game of golf.

LOST BALL     If the ball is Lost use Rule 27.  To save time, play a provisional ball if your ball is played into an area where it might not be found.

UNPLAYABLE             If the ball comes to rest in a difficult lie the player can, if they choose, apply Rule 28 Unplayable ball.  The player incurs a one-stroke penalty and has 3 options for deciding where to play the next stroke from - see rule book.  The most common option would be :- drop the ball within 2 club lengths of the spot where the ball lay, not nearer the hole.

GUR      If the ball comes to rest in an area identified as GUR and defined either with stakes or lines, a free drop may be taken.  The position to drop is within one club length of the nearest point of relief from the GUR area, not nearer the hole.  

VEHICLE TRACKS      There are many parts of the course where vehicles involved in the harvest and cleanup have damaged or disturbed the surface.  These are gradually being repaired, starting   with the worst areas on or near fairways. For the avoidance of doubt, all vehicle tracks are now "play as it lies" unless marked

GUR.  Players who feel unfairly disadvantaged by this are invited and encouraged to join the group of hard-working volunteers so that we can complete the remaining repair work faster.  Where the vehicle track or other damage is on a fairway, the clean-and-place local rule will permit limited relief.  

LOOSE IMPEDIMENTS         If a ball comes to rest in an area containing tree material which isn't fixed or growing, the player is permitted to remove these loose impediments.  If this removal causes the ball to move the player incurs a 1 stroke penalty and the moved ball must be replaced.   Soil and sand are NOT loose impediments (except on a putting green) therefore it is not permitted to move soil or sand to improve the lie.

Yes we need trees to create some degree of difficulty for the course but not at the expense they are creating at present.

The trees compete with the turf for nutrients, moisture and light.  These three factors are the most important ones to create a good enduring surface for golf to be played on.  The word to remember here is surface.  Some of our greens are being badly affected by shade (exclusion of light).  This causes moss, soft growth and disease.  Root intrusion creates dry patchy turf and in some cases damage to mowing equipment where the roots are actually pushing through the surface.

The debris that is created by trees is one of the most destructive problems.  All those leaves, pine needles etc, create additional organic material that eventually contributes to the build-up of a thatch layer that dramatically affects the quality of the turf surface.  Not a lot of fun trying to roll the ball over a layer of acorns is it, or trying to chip the ball close when an acorn is between the club face and the ball.

The Board and Greens Committee are investigating ways to thin the tree population to improve the playing surfaces and reduce the maintenance costs directly attributable to trees. There will be some inconvenience to play at times but unless something is done in the short term then the problems will only get worse.

A recent meeting with a respected forestry consultant has left us in no doubt that action needs to be taken.  He feels that this project can be accomplished with a positive cash-flow and this is comforting in these cash strapped times.

Members will be kept informed of decisions that need to be made.  It is important to remember that this is a Golf Course first and that playing conditions need to have precedence.

CONTRACT:

KGC would sign an agreement with Laurie Forestry (LF), they become our marketing agent, and they commit to marketing our logs and also take the role of tendering, hiring and supervising contractors to do the harvest operations.  For all this they earn a commission on the sales revenue.  Allan stressed he works for us to get us the best possible outcome, he doesn't work for the buyers or the contractors.

LF has extensive experience, over 30 yrs, most clients are small forest owners but they also assist councils (eg parks, reserves) and they have done golf courses too.  (References available)

Safety is taken care of by LF and the contractors they develop written plans specific to each task which are approved by OSH before work starts.  Fitting to our needs is primary consideration - especially minimising disruption to playing golf.   The contractor would have to work to our specifications - eg not on certain playing days, control vehicle movements on course, placing residue in neat piles, etc.

LF have in mind a possible contractor who will be asked to tender, good experience on smaller jobs like this, and likely to be considerate of our needs and issues (there will be some inevitable damage to course)

Allan will write a report to us from the initial meeting appraising our situation and suggesting how we move forward. The next meeting will be to discuss the terms of an Agreement - LF will draft it but we can negotiate the terms in that agreement,  if we are happy to proceed we sign it then LF can proceed to get things underway.  KGC don't pay any money to anyone, the costs to the contractor and the fee to LF are taken from the income and KGC get what is left.  LF will provide us all the details so the income and costs and fees are all transparent.

NOTES FROM WALK AROUND COURSE

LF say we can certainly make some money from our trees, the market is presently quite strong and we have a mixture of grades from good export grade to not very good (but still of some value)

Stumps - we can specify cutting close to ground, should leave stumps in ground for about 2 years - then become much easier to remove.

Once trees cut, logs need to be sold within 2-6 weeks else develop sap stain.

Even the oaks have good value - the larger ones will make excellent firewood, let dry for 12 months.  Some of our pine trees are over 80 years old.

We need to be aware of all the residue that will be left on the course - we can require the contractor to pile that and tidy up.  This adds cost, but Allan warns that there will be a large amount of residue left behind so we need to plan how to manage that BEFORE we start.

They will try to keep the working areas off fairways, in most cases this will be possible.  Some trees which want to fall out across fairway can be winched to fall parallel to fairway - this adds a bit of cost.

Curved branches, knotted parts etc would be left behind - could use for firewood, else bury/burn.

Members could gradually work away at extracting pine cones and firewood from what is left, otherwise leave in piles marked as GUR to dry out then burn.

Suggestion for the young pine plantation to right of 9th fairway, thin by removing approx every second tree, especially the weaker ones and prune the rest.  The ones we remove, if done in December we could sell the tops as Xmas trees.

If we are harvesting a large group of trees (eg large number need to come out between 16 and 17) we should include in that job some other nearby trees if we do those small groups as a separate job the harvest costs are higher, but contractor won't mind doing them once already set up on site for a big job.

We suggest a start date of Oct 2009, because course will have dried out for vehicles.  We suggest tackling as much as possible in Bob's plan from Oct to Feb 2010.  We could specify low harvest activity in the key green fee season around Xmas/January.

We said to Allan, the priority areas are mainly on the back 9.

• large group of old pine trees between 16 and 17
• mainly old pines in the area between 11 and 9 fairways, also between 11 and 12 and near to this area are problem trees around 10th including oaks.
• mainly pines right side of 14, and some problem trees adjacent to 15.
• After that there are lower priority groups of trees at various places throughout course (We should get Bob B and Peter to develop our removal and replacement plan and priorities a bit more so we have a clear strategy ready in case we move forward on this and need to instruct Laurie Forestry in the near future).

If trees are being removed from a certain part of the course, for safety we could close some holes and still have play elsewhere.  Best access for contractor to get to these back 9 areas will be from the practice fairway.

SUMMARY:

This is an excellent opportunity for the club to move more rapidly than in the past to sort out some tree competition problems, and more importantly to generate some income.  One of the main outcomes from this first meeting is that the club will make some money this is important.

There is a possibility here to move quite quickly to make significant changes on the course leading to improved playing surfaces.  There will no doubt be some concern from some members about tree removal the Board will communicate its plans and provide explanation so that members understand this project and have opportunity to input to it.

Dear Bob

I was very pleased to have the opportunity to meet with you and the team last Thursday to review harvesting of trees on the Golf Course.  I have kept this response reasonably brief in the interests of simply presenting an outline as a means to progress from here.

In this letter I cover off on those matters discussed.  I also confirm how the arrangements might proceed from here including recommendations for the key factors that should affect this project.

Background. The Golf Club has prepared a plan of intent setting out the areas of trees destined for removal. There has been no priority list derived within the plan but there is a clear understanding of which trees should be targeted first.  The trees mainly comprise old crop Radiata pine but might eventually include some of the commercial ornamental species like Oak.

The Golf Club Board is keen to ensure that all plans for removal of trees are well conceived. This will include the following:

• Ensure there is a clear understanding of how access is to be gained to each site
• Have a prescription for how each site is to be managed in respect of continuing use of the golf course
• Have a clear understanding of slash clean up as a component of the harvesting work which is to be to a high standard.
• In tandem with harvesting operations is the need for careful management of hazards and this will include Golf course users.
• Ensure the pre harvest marketing plan reflects a net gain to the Golf Club and the revenues and risks associated with the revenues are clearly understood.
• Final approval of the marketing plan is via the Golf Club Board of Management.
• On going dialogue and agreement might alter intended plans but these variations will require an approval protocol.

Management of Health and Safety protocols during operations will be fundamental to ensuring that any risk of injury or accident to harvesting crews and golfers is managed to an absolute minimum.

Blocks of trees to be harvested. During our inspection we looked at several blocks of trees that are destined for removal as a matter of priority. These blocks are between fairways and for the most part comprise old crop Radiata pine.

I can foresee no particular difficulties with the marketing given their quality. I found a high percentage of current export grades with a small percentage of domestic sawlog included.   There would also be firewood logs and chip logs.  Whilst there are one or two interesting trees within the blocks I can see no exceptional felling challenges. We did discuss the need for some trees to be winched in a direction to ensure minimum damage to fairways and so on.

There were one or two very large and poor formed trees that will present a few challenges both in terms of felling elements but also the marketing. Overall I would rate the trees as being moderately good quality and based on prevailing log prices I can see no reason why they would not generate a positive return to the Golf Club.

Laurie Forestry Ltd offer of service. LFL is a Consulting and Management company with a client base comprising private investors, farmers, District Councils and organisations.

Our harvesting and marketing services are provided as agent for the Grower. This service is undertaken on a fee for service basis.  We work with Growers to secure an understanding and approval of expected outcomes and then manage the process to ensure optimal returns.  This means ensuring all the fundamentals of a safe and efficient harvesting operation are in place.

I see our relationship with the Gold Club unfolding as follows:

• Golf Club Board to agree to progress negotiations with LFL based on the offer of service set out here. Final engagement is subject to approval of the Service Agreement.
• LFL to present our Harvesting and Marketing agreement to the Board including the negotiation of fees within this arrangement.  
• Once the H&M agreement is approved by the Board timelines are drawn up according to priorities.  The timelines are to include the start of the marketing process as well as when harvesting is expected to start.
•  The Board are to finally approve a marketing plan once we have been through the tender and negotiation exercise with suppliers of service and markets for the sale of the wood.  That plan will set out the expected revenues (royalties) per tonne or per cubic metre.
• Following acceptance of marketing plan by the Board we are to set time lines and prepare necessary notices and engage contractors to undertake the work.
• On the implementation of harvest LFL manage all Health and Safety matters and supervise contractors to ensure the satisfactory completion of the various blocks to be harvested both in terms of utilisation of the wood within the trees as well as the associated clean up.

We welcome any comment on the above and confirm our ability and eagerness to undertake this operation to your complete satisfaction.

I now look forward the Boards review to this offer of service and welcome any comments and or queries that may arise.

I look forward of being of service in the future.

Sincerely

Allan Laurie MNZIF

Registered Forestry Consultant

MAJOR COURSE IMPROVEMENT PROJECT NOTES:

Over the past few months the Board and Greens Committee have been assessing the problems being caused by some of the large trees on our golf course, and investigating remedies.

A proposed PLAN, involving removal of a significant number of large trees, followed by some replacement plantings, has now been posted in the clubhouse.  The PLAN is accompanied by photographs illustrating the problems, and some supporting written material detailing the issues.  

Please take time to study the project and the PLAN, and consider the implications.  A summary of the project objectives and proposed activities is attached to this email.  

On Monday 14 September at 7pm there was a informal meeting in the clubhouse where the project and the PLAN was presented by the Board and Greens Committee.   25 members attended, ask questions, and made comments.

The Board has determined that this project is of sufficient scale to trigger a requirement within the constitution (see clause below) to obtain support from members before proceeding.

The Board intends to call a Special General Meeting on Monday October 19th where members will make a formal decision about this project.   Notice of this meeting and the agenda will be mailed to those entitled to vote.

Bob Petrie

Board Chairman

64 Members approved this project

at the Special General Meeting