Local Drama: Don't Break Trees

[jupiterboy]

Neighborhood course has had an issue for a while that I've been watching develop. I was locking my bike last week and overheard the city crew talking about various grants to add trees and how happy they are about it. Story checks out. I've seen some big one comes down do to old age, and there are new saplings about every time I play. The unfortunate reality is that sighting new trees means putting them where they can get some sun, which means in the middle of the fairways. They've added so many trees that some of the holes are almost unplayable. There's pretty much zero fairway left, and because the trees are young, the ceiling for shots is super low, like the middle of my chest.

Yesterday I got to the last hole and noticed that someone had snapped four lower limbs off of one of the saplings. I have no idea how to fix this situation, and I actually bike over from the city and this is a suburban township so I've got little say. I can add it up though, and suspect some disc golfer had enough and went off on the tree. I suspect this wont end well, and I also don't have any big point to this thread except to say—don't break the trees. Just roll the disc or something.

Anyone else see this sort of thing?

 

[R-Ogre]

I don't think unapproved course maintenance is a super common thing but it definitely happens. Somebody chopped the trees that were the only real obstacle on hole 2 of our local a summer or 2 ago.

 

[Jimb]

Many moons ago I had a nightmare about people playing Knobley Mountain and taking down trees that they didn't like. Woke up angry about it.

I have seen a couple branches on trees bent and broken on the local course Central AOG. I, being the designer, was not happy about it as the branches were specifically left there to protect the greens or to define the fairway. :wall:

 

[xyman621]

A course I play almost daily over my lunch break had a kind of similar situation happen. The Scout Center shares the grounds of the disc golf course, one year one of their large projects for the cub-scouts was to plant tons of trees. Love it, there is unused space throughout the public park so the more trees the better. Except disc golf is an unknown to most of them, so some of those trees found their way throughout the course.

Some people welcomed the new trees and the difficulty it provided. But there were plenty of others that complained about their displeasure of them. Some just wanted them moved. Soon enough I'd find limbs broken off and snapped. Trees bent all the way over. Not just in the fairway but from precarious places where a disc probably didn't do the damage, who knows though. The initial outrage and destruction fizzled off and with a little TLC all the trees survived.

This was 5+ years ago and some of the lines have gotten tighter but still manageable. Give it another 10 and a couple holes might play different. Most people who play there either don't know about the situation or have forgotten all about it. But I'm sure there's a handful of people that still curse the trees and cub-scouts when their great shot is gobbled up.

 

[BillFleming]

A course I frequent had someone do some "course maintenance". The course designer/maintainer put up signs on each tee pad saying something like "Please do not do course maintenance on trees/bushes. This park is a city park they must do any pruning or other maintenance on trees/bushes. If this continues, we could lose the course".

It was a bit more wordy than that...but the point was...stop this or we may lose the course.

 

[ThrowBot]

A couple years ago, someone went so far as to girdle the nice mature maple that is THE primary obstacle on hole 7 (short pin) at Pioneer Park here in Billings. Most of us locals were heartbroken -- removing that tree would change that hole from a touchy risk/reward shot to a dumb backhand shyzer.

Fortunately, the City Parks folks jumped on it with some sort of healing paste and wrapped the damage in a tarp to protect it over the winter. We were all relieved when the leaves started growing again come springtime. Crisis averted!

The tree is still there and still forcing more skillful play on the hole.

 

[smoothplayer]

I've seen a couple courses get so overgrown as well though that they become unplayable with anything but an OH shot. It's a difficult situation for players to be in. Spend hours going through the city and ask them to do pruning or go ape and do it yourself?

I've cut small branches that have overgorwn onto teeboxes and in one instance into a basket. Obviously no one wants a branch in their face when teeing off so I go rogue and simply snap it off. You can thank me later for keeping the course maintained.

As far as the OP's problem. Not sure what you can do. If the course gets enough play I imagine those small trees will get creamed if they are not protected and a fairway will open up eventually.

 

[EarthRocker]

Very recently: on #15 at Plantation Ruins, there was a skinny guardian tree about 10-15 feet from the basket, directly in the line of play from the tee. It's a short hole, so it needed that protection. There were still ways to get to the target...

But someone went out there and just broke the thing. Snapped it, is what I heard. Must have had to climb it and then hang/bounce/whatever to make it happen. They may have used a tool of some kind, but I can't be sure. I think Old Tom might have cleaned up the wreckage, because I didn't see any leftover splinters or even a stump.

That kind of thing makes me want to denounce my peaceful ways. It's worse than the idiots who spray-painted several rocks and teepads out there, but not by a lot. *teeth gnashing*

 

[Binky Yutz]

I've seen a couple courses get so overgrown as well though that they become unplayable with anything but an OH shot. It's a difficult situation for players to be in. Spend hours going through the city and ask them to do pruning or go ape and do it yourself?

Apologies up front for the length of this post......

I understand this sentiment completely. Getting our City of Gulfport to do trimming or pruning on the disc course would be next to impossible. The Parks and Rec Department is currently staffed by 8 people, and they are responsible for ALL 22 city parks. Normal staffing level is 24 people. The city does an excellent job of emptying the trash cans and having the grass mowed by contractors. The rest is left up to us disc golfers. We have to be "THEY", otherwise nothing would get done and the course would be completely overgrown. Disc golfers are also the ones that have installed brick or paver tee pads on most of the holes, at our expense, and with our sweat. You've heard the adage: Better to ask for forgiveness than permission. That is how it works down here.

Sending a non Disc Golfer to "trim" the course would be nightmare. They would have no idea what needed cutting and what needs to stay in place. There are 4 or 5 of us that do the work at Brickyard. I get thanked all the time, for doing course maintenance. Keeping the walking paths clear, trimming back new growth, pruning hedges and bushes. This course used to be a neighborhood that flooded constantly. After Hurricane Katrina, FEMA said "No more houses" and had all houses, slabs and driveways removed. What they left were all the shrubs, bushes and trees that were in folks yards, and they require trimming to keep the course looking nice. The varied vegetation is a pretty unique feature of Brickyard Bayou.

After getting nothing but red tape and a bunch of bureaucratic BS from the City's website "Report an Issue" feature, designed specifically for this type of situation, I had to contact the Mayor's office about getting old hurricane debris picked up from Hurricane Zeta in October 2020. Disc golfers were the ones that cleaned up most of the course after the storm, and repaired damaged baskets. The city did come in and cut up all the downed trees, but they left tons of debris in their wake. Huge piles of debris were piled up on the 3 road ways that run through the course. Some of those piles were there for almost 2 years. I finally had enough and got the Mayor to send the debris trucks around. I managed to get results when I let the Mayor's office know my next step would be to contact the local news agencies, to see if they could coax them into getting the debris picked up. Fortunately, it did not come to that, the Mayor got it done.

For those that believe that course trimming is done for the sole purpose of "making it easier", I would argue that it is not making it "easier", it is making it "playable".

Having played courses like Idlewild, Mount Airy, Lake Claiborne, IDGC, Lake Olmstead, Langley Pond, Pendleton King, and Stoney Hill, among others, I feel I know what a nice course looks like. I do my absolute best to get my home course up to those standards.

I can only imagine the amount of work that David Sauls and his brother have to do to keep Stoney Hill looking good. God bless you guys!! If no one else appreciates what you guys have put into that course, I do.

 

[DavidSauls]

Thanks for the kind words.

The simple answer to the topic is....
there is no one simple answer.

Circumstances vary from public course to public course. Some parks departments do a great job, and work with the established club. Others are indifferent to disc golf course. Some places have dedicated individuals who voluntarily do course maintenance, and the parks departments are fine with it. Others have disc golfers going rogue, each one cutting what he or her decides should be cut, often unwisely.

A good relationship between the leaders of the local disc golf scene, and the parks department, is what we should strive for. With it, no one should be making unauthorized changes to the course. But where that doesn't work, we're stuck with both parks departments making changes that diminish the course (like planting trees in bad places), and disc golfers damaging the course. (I've mused that if you let each disc golfer remove whatever vegetation he doesn't like, you'll end up playing in a desert).

 

[DeanMoriarty]

I have a pretty embarrassing story about trees and DG that happened semi-recently.

I was playing this "9 hole course" in the middle of this RV park in Wisconsin that was really busy at the time.. people all over BBQing, drinking, playing lawn darts and stuff but nobody was bothering with the DG course which was in the middle of the grounds of the park aka where everyone can see.

Every hole was basically under 120 feet so I was having a blast running aces. I was on I believe hole 7 and I threw a shot that got stuck on giant tree branch that was short enough to where I could jump up and try to grab my disc.

Well, it ended up being a little bit too tall for me to just jump up and grab it so I decided to jump up and grab the tree branch to try to shake the disc off. I guess I have Hulk strength because I accidentally ripped the entire tree branch off in front of a bunch of people and just kind of stood there feeling extremely stupid and embarassed.

What was I suppose to do now? Attempt to attach the branch back on? Put my head down and walk away quietly?

I ended up choosing the latter and pretty much quickly threw at the last two baskets and got out of there ASAP. I still don't understand how a really thick tree branch fell off so easily but either way, I still felt extremely bad about it.

 

[jupiterboy]

In the case I mentioned (OP), I'm talking about newly planted trees with four lower branches broken off roughly and left hanging with bark stripped halfway down the trunk. This only invited disease and makes a mess of the original investment. I think this is different than reasonable reasonable pruning when a city can't get to it. The thing I'd add is I've learned that there are good times to prune, so if you are going to do this, get it sorted and do it right.

 

[DavidSauls]

I can't think of any way to justify deliberately damaging newly-planted trees. Whether the trees should have been planted there or not, it's obviously the owner's (parks department's) intent to have them there.

 

[coupe]

I can't think of any way to justify deliberately damaging newly-planted trees. Whether the trees should have been planted there or not, it's obviously the owner's (parks department's) intent to have them there.

"But it was in the line I wanted to throw my shot." — Brad Chipmunk … err, Hamster … err, Hammock

 

[smoothplayer]

Thanks for the kind words.

The simple answer to the topic is....
there is no one simple answer.

Circumstances vary from public course to public course. Some parks departments do a great job, and work with the established club. Others are indifferent to disc golf course. Some places have dedicated individuals who voluntarily do course maintenance, and the parks departments are fine with it. Others have disc golfers going rogue, each one cutting what he or her decides should be cut, often unwisely.

A good relationship between the leaders of the local disc golf scene, and the parks department, is what we should strive for. With it, no one should be making unauthorized changes to the course. But where that doesn't work, we're stuck with both parks departments making changes that diminish the course (like planting trees in bad places), and disc golfers damaging the course. (I've mused that if you let each disc golfer remove whatever vegetation he doesn't like, you'll end up playing in a desert).

There is definitely a difference between a non discgolfer cutting down what they want (to make it easier) compared to someone who has been playing a course for 15 years and hundreds of times then seen it overgorwn and the fairways disappear. Now you need a 300 foot OH to play and it's not fun anymore.

Some courses I play they can barely mow the grass once a month on the disc golf course. They got baseball fields and everything else that takes precedent. No chance they are spending a day pruning trees to open back up some fairways.

 

[smoothplayer]

In the case I mentioned (OP), I'm talking about newly planted trees with four lower branches broken off roughly and left hanging with bark stripped halfway down the trunk. This only invited disease and makes a mess of the original investment. I think this is different than reasonable reasonable pruning when a city can't get to it. The thing I'd add is I've learned that there are good times to prune, so if you are going to do this, get it sorted and do it right.

That is definitely true as well. I bet a lot of people don't know what trees you can cut at what times to prevent diseases like Oak Wilt.

 

[ray1970]

My home course recently added a bunch of new trees. They are only about 8' tall right now but when they mature they are going to make the course better and more challenging. I haven't made it out for tags yet but I've heard the local club that runs the matches has made hitting these trees a stroke penalty so at least they are doing their part to help protect the trees from damage and give them a fighting chance to grow.

 

[BigDickHyzer]

removed

 

[Angelo_Troiola]

I've had my fair share of fantasies that involve me sneaking into the local course late at night with a chainsaw and having my way with branches or grouping of trees that have done me dirty.

I've never done it obviously but man it's been tempting. Then I realize I am getting mad at trees and the rage quickly blows over.

 

[Moose33]

There is a hole on one of our league courses that is a tunnel for the first 175 ft or so(total hole is like 275), with a pretty low ceiling. At the mounts of the tunnel are three small trees leaving the biggest gap around 4 ft and 2-3 ft between the other two.

I am beyond surprised that no one has ripped any of them apart in a fit of rage.