What would you do?

Went up the course today just to drop somebody off. I had to go to work shortly but I had a little bit of time to burn. Anyway, one of the guys who plays league and is a friend was out on the course doing a bit of trimming. Now I just wanted to see what he was up to so I went down to find him. He was on hole #8 and he was taking out a few of the smaller trees (if you could call them that) and some dead branches. He was complaining about how the course was overgrown and frankly I would have to agree with him since we never really do any scheduled pruning. Things get pruned here and there but we really need to go through and methodically do some pruning. I helped him cut down a broken and dead branch and then walked up to hole 1 and thought nothing else of it.

Now my friend had mentioned that someone was taking video of him. Well here comes that guy and he's arguing with another guy and the guy who was taking video starts saying that he will turn the other guy in to the cops so that he can get a $3000 fine. I was trying to tell him that he was wrong with his attitude. This guy isn't involved in any aspect of course maintenance and here he is saying that he is going to save the course. And in the next breath he turns around and says that he doesn't care if the course gets pulled. I hear the course is going to get pulled thing so much that I realize that is what people say when they want to scare you into listening to them. "Do as I say or the course will get pulled!". Total crap. And then the guy starts saying that he's heard things about me. Really? I have only pruned a few very small things this year. One time I pruned some trees directly in front of a tee so that you could see if people were still on the hole. I made sure that I didn't change any lines. The second time I pruned some trees for a new pin position. Once again I only pruned as much as necessary.

I have put both time and money into the course while others have done nothing. Now I don't look for praise. I'm just happy when people use the course and then say how much they like it. But this clown all of a sudden considers himself to be in charge. What a joke. I really wanted to take a swing at him but I let my better judgement win. The real problem is that unfortunately things don't get done by our local club. It is individuals that end up getting things done. But this guy is nothing but trouble. In the end he walked away. But I'm sure we'll see him again. I guarantee that he won't be playing league.

[Steve Belliveau]

Rise above stupidity!allow it to wallow were it was.

[Jim Coonradt]

Latest update. A guy from the City Forestry department was out yesterday because of a report of a dangerous tree. So my friend who sells discs at the course walked down to the tree which is in front of hole #8. Makes me wonder if the guy who was doing the cutting called it in because that way they will do the cutting for him. That tree is practically petrified and was in no way dangerous before someone started cutting on it.

Anyway, with the Forestry department involved maybe we can actually get some good pruning done. I called the Forestry guy a few minutes ago but only got voice mail. Will see what needs to be done now and if it is a good or bad time of the year to actually prune. If they will bring out a chipper it would make things a lot easier.

One year we piled up all of our cut branches by the street and it took them forever to pick up and dispose of them properly. Stupid people from the neighborhood were throwing Christmas trees onto the pile. That didn't work too well. Anyway, at least we are moving forward now and the proper people are involved. They do want to talk with the guy Preston. They want to let him know that further cutting could lead to prosecution.

[Jim Coonradt]

If I get my son's digital camera back I will post some pictures up. I saw the tree in question yesterday. Someone has gone about half way through it already. The rest of the tree (since elms never die they just shoot out from the bottom) is getting bigger than the dead part so the line will not change a whole bunch. We will probably try to use the dead part as logs for benches. Too bad we didn't get someone to carve the dead part of the tree. It would be cool in the right hands.

I am going to try to organize a work day out at the course. If we could get a handful of people out to help with trimming dead branches and general cleanup it would be cool. Unfortunately our last work day only about seven people showed up. But if we do an organized work day we cold get some proper trimming done with the help of the City (and their knowledge). The guy from the City actually told me that they let us use that property with the understanding that it is a "wild"area and that therefore it doesn't need much pruning. In other words, they don't want to be bothered with spending any time or money on trimming. But at least they will have knowledge of our work so toes don't get stepped on.