Golf
Winnie and his colleagues working on a bunker ... “ 26 I PC JUNE/JULY 2015
... which was back in play after three weeks
It is the original copses of willow, especially on the boundaries, that have caused airflow problems, but looking up a fairway to a green framed by trees is quite a picture
tides close the sluice gate and the ditches start to rise. The pump is left on automatic for the winter months and will come on when triggered by a float switch that is set at 18 inches above normal ditch level. This last winter, the pump activated on 19th December and worked 24/7 right through until March. In total, this cost us over £8000 in red diesel; not something you want when your flood control budget is about £1000 for fuel and about the same for contractors!” “We use contractors to clear our douits.
Having three miles of them, we cannot keep them all clean and, by law, we have to have them cut and cleared by 15th June and again by 15th September, after which they are inspected by the parish officials, who then send me a report on their current condition and whether we have to complete any remedial work. At the moment, we are getting good reports but, during wet periods, we still walk the course with rakes clearing any silt build up that we get due to the vast amounts of water that flows through the site.”
Martyn states that the local flora and
fauna is very important and must not be altered too much. “I think a lot of courses now are trying to reinstate what they had previously. I was fortunate that I was here from the start to see what the land originally supported, plant and animal wise. When we picked the trees to line fairways or develop into small copses, we had good knowledge of what would grow in the areas we had chosen
and, considering the work they give us now, they are flourishing rather well!” “When we started to build the course back in the nineties, the States of Guernsey, along with the Men Of The Trees, were running a free tree replacement scheme due to the loss of elms from Dutch elm disease, so we took the opportunity to get them on site and see where they could help us. We would show the officials an area and see if they had anything suitable on their list, they were able to help us out over several winters with copse and boundary planting, though I must say the ones that we took as cuttings seem to have been most successful. We have an area set aside where we plant saplings and cuttings for later use on the course.” “In recent years, we have collected native
plant seeds and are trying to develop out of play areas on the course to encourage these species to flourish.” “I have planted nearly 20,000 trees in the
past twenty-four years and, with these, we were able to choose their position. It is the original copses of willow, especially on the boundaries, that have caused airflow problems, but looking up a fairway to a green framed by trees is quite a picture. It is quite easy to clear an area in these copses and we burn on site. It makes a cold winters day go a bit quicker. I remember, in years gone by during construction, we could spend weeks clearing and our fire sites never needed to be relit the following day; the embers just needed to be stirred up and off
All chemicals are kept under safe storage
Reed removal, but not until the Reed Buntings have fledged!
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