Blue tilapia, a bald eagle and asking for help.

Part of what we do in the winter is plan out our disease and pest management plans for the upcoming season. This year we came across something a little different when trying to manage the algae and other aquatic weeds in our ponds. Blue tilapia is a fish that is originally from Africa but has recently been brought into the Ohio area as a means of algae control. Apparently, the fish do a great job of consuming aquatic weeds; weeds that we normally apply chemicals to control. So, this year we are going to stock our ponds in late May with the tilapia and see how well they do. If they are successful, we will not only save money on our algae control but, we should also have healthier ponds. The largest drawback is that you have to buy these fish every year because they do not survive the cold winters. However, they become a great food supply for the predatory fish and because they don't survive the winters, they cannot become an invasive species. Hopefully this works because it will save us money and the process of treating the ponds every few weeks is a hassle that would be great to avoid. Below are links providing more information about the fish.

Blue tilapia stars in pond algae war

Tilapia for pond management

This week we had a pretty impressive bald eagle on the course for an hour or so. I'm not sure where it came from but it was fun to watch it hunt for a bit. I tried to get a good picture of it but I wasn't able to get very close without scaring it away. The best I got was when it was standing on the ice in the middle of the pond.

As I've discussed before on this blog, we are working with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to reduce our Canada goose population. One thing of the bigger issues we have is that when the geese leave our property we cannot harass them or work on their nests. The representative from the ODNR told me that if we received permission from homeowners, the egg destruction permit he issues the golf course would be good on those properties as well. So, if you live in the neighborhood and have unwanted geese nesting on your property, I would be glad to come over and harass them and destroy their eggs so that you don't have to deal with a family of geese all summer. You can get in touch with me through email me at igallagher@barringtongolf.org or send me a message through the blog. Thanks a lot.

Ian

Tree removal and goose harassment.

We have gone back at tree removal in the last few weeks and work is moving well thanks, again, to the nice weather and lack of snow. It's hard to say for sure but I think we are starting to get caught up with all the dead Ash trees and moving into yearly tree maintenance. Every year there are a few trees that die for myriad different reasons and we need to remove those for safety. We rarely cut down living trees but, I think there is a misconception among some people that we are removing living trees. I bring this up because a few times people have come out and asked me why I'm cutting down trees. The only time we take down living trees would be because it is causing a shade issue on a green or if it is adversely affecting the growth of another tree which would benefit from its removal. Cases like this are more the exception than the norm.

Dead oak at #11 tee. Notice how much of the canopy shattered, this is always a sign of a dead or dying tree. Those are dangerous limbs to have 60' above your head.

Again, shattered and rotting limbs high above.

Tree rotting at the trunk.

This is an article that does a good job of explaining some of the different diseases and insects that kill trees every year in our area.
A Tree Hugger's Guide To The Forest Dynamics Of Northeast Ohio

Once again, geese are trying to find places to hang out this winter and they are attempting to make Barrington their home. To discourage this we are letting the ponds freeze and harassing them whenever we get a chance. This means bird bangers, screamer sirens and chasing in carts. It's very important to keep geese from getting too comfortable so we'll be aggressive with the harassment. Last year we had good luck with the same approach so, hopefully we can duplicate those results and have another goose reduction in 2016.

Ian