Thursday, June 30, 2011

Traver Creek Bank Stabilization

In conjunction with the Washtenaw County Drain Commissioner's Office, we were able to stabilize the stream bank near #12 green with large chunks of crushed limestone. This is known as "rip-rap." It is able to with stand the erosive forces of the stream better than native soils.

Here is the stream from 2009.


Here it is from this spring. Notice how the stream has broken through it's bank.



Here is the picture after the rip-rap has been added.



We also redirected the stream away from the green in a different ox-bow. This is a place were the stream, at one time, flowed through until it eroded and changed it's course.


Here is another area that we stabilized near the cart path.


You can see Karl putting the geo-textile fabric down that helps hold the soil in place.

Here is a video of the rock being put into place.




Friday, June 24, 2011

Just the tip of the boulder........

The expression "Just the tip of the iceberg" took on a slightly different form for us this week. One of the guys mowed #13 fairway and told me about a "little" rock that was working it's way up through the turf. I sent a couple of guys out to 13 at the end of the day to dig it out and fill in the hole with soil and seed. They came back and told me they could not get the rock out. It was too big. When I saw what they had excavated, I went to get the backhoe because it was VERY big. Here is a picture of it's new home in one of the parking lot medians.



One of the unique (to southeastern Michigan) things about Leslie Park is the change in elevation. This is thanks to the glaciers that came through 10,000 years ago. They deposited whatever they picked up in Canada here. In areas where the glaciers paused, they put more of the sediment (called glacial till)and caused the hills and valleys (kettle and kames) we have here. According to Wikipedia,  glacial till is unsorted glacial sediment. Glacial till is that part of glacial drift which was deposited directly by the glacier. Its content may vary from clays to mixtures of clay, sand, gravel and boulders.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Phosphorus Reductions in the Huron River Watershed

Phosphorus Reductions in the Huron Get Noticed

In 2007 the Huron River Watershed Council (HRWC) recommended that phosphorous fertilizers not be used within the watershed. The purpose was to cut down on the amount of phosphorous, a major factor in algae blooms, in the Huron River. The City of Ann Arbor adopted this as a city regulation, and as such, Leslie Park has not used any phosphorous fertilizers since. In December 2010 Michigan lawmakers passed legislation (HB-5368) that extended this regulation statewide. The new regulations and limitations will go into effect Jan. 1, 2012.

In 2010 the HRWC conducted a Water Quality Monitoring Program that showed a 28% drop in phosphorus in Ann Arbor tributaries including Traver Creek, which runs through Leslie Park Golf Course.



I am proud to say that total phosphorus has declined in each of the three survey periods and compares favorably with other tributaries in the Huron watershed. This may be due to the fact that Traver Creek's watershed is not as developed as other tributaries, but it still shows the golf course is not a major contributor to phosphorus in the Huron River.

This is supported by the water sampling we do quarterly. How we do it is detailed in a previous post HERE. In short, we take water tests from the pond on #17 (where Traver Creek enters the property) and from the pond on #12 (where the creek leaves the golf course). These tests, which we have done since 2009, confirm the golf course does not add to the nutrients in the creek. In fact, most of the tests show a decrease of the elements that are sampled. This is a very good sign that the fertilizer and chemicals we use on the golf course are used in a responsible way. We avoid applying fertilizers near water and have buffer strips near the creek to filter runoff that may occur.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

AALC Thank You

I would just like to share with you the very nice thank you letter that I got Wendy Nagle's class at the Ann Arbor Learning Community. They donated a couple of bat house to the golf course and then came out to visit one of them. You can read more about this HERE.


Also, here is a nice picture of a blue flag iris from the native plant garden near #12.


And the peonies at the clubhouse.



Friday, June 3, 2011

May Weather Summary

6.77

That is how much rain we got at Leslie Park Golf Course in the moth of May, 2011.

According to The Weather Underground, the normal rainfall in Ann Arbor is 2.89 inches. That is roughly 230% more rain. 19 days (out of 31) had more than a trace of rain and 9 had more than a tenth of an inch. Only one day had more than an inch of rain with 2.55 inches coming on the 25th. That storm had 3.38 inches of rainfall in 24 hours.

The high temperature was 89.2 degrees (May 31st), low temperature was 34.5 (May 4th.) The average temperature was 59.8.

The highest wind speed recorded was 30 mph on the 23rd.