THE RED COCKADED WOODPECKER

The logo of Forest Creek Golf Club has always been a red- cockaded woodpecker.  The choice of that bird is a reflection of the efforts made during the development of Forest Creek to protect the red-cockaded woodpecker and its unique  habitat. The red-cockaded woodpecker is an endangered species which lives in mature pine forests and requires old (usually 100+ years) living pines for cavity sites.  Cavity sites are used for nesting and roosting. The site on which Forest Creek Golf Club was created is a mature longleaf pine forest of this type.  Numerous cavity trees  exist on Forest Creek property and are utilized by this endangered species.

As the golf course and real estate development were built, the design and routing of the roads and golf holes took into account the existence of cavity trees. Older trees and especially the most mature flat top long leaf pines were avoided in construction.  Efforts to protect those trees are ongoing.  The red-cockaded woodpecker, its cavity trees and its foraging habitat are all protected by federal law. Protecting the foraging habitat requires removal of the understory scrub oaks.

There has always been a sensitivity to environmental concerns at Forest Creek.  Our use of pesticides has been careful because of wood pecker habitat concerns and also because of our location in a watershed used for drinking water.  We have regularly tested the waters leaving the site for pesticides and fertilizers and have found the waters to be clean and safe.  We manage the understory of the longleaf pine forest to promote woodpecker habitat and protect the unique sandhills ecosystem. Our consulting biologist Jay Carter has staff who monitor the existing cavity trees for woodpecker groups and create new cavity trees when existing trees are lost to lightning or wind.

The red-cockaded woodpecker is unusual in that they live in family groups and cluster together in colonies.  Our population of red-cockaded woodpeckers has grown at Forest Creek from the initial tree and colony surveys in the 1980's and 1990's.  The fish and wildlife services regularly bands these birds so that they can monitor their movements and successes. One of the first birds to reestablish a colony along the south golf course migrated from Fort Bragg and established his group near the 14th green on the South course. He was a pioneer and his offspring have established other clusters.  Unfortunately he was killed several years ago when lightning struck the cavity tree in which he was nesting. Our logo at Forest Creek is unique and special.  We have worked around these birds and worked to promote their survival.  When you play golf at Forest Creek you are playing in a very special ecosystem of long leaf pines, wiregrass, and red -cockaded woodpeckers. This ecosystem does not exist in very many other places.

PROJECT UPDATE

We are fortunate to have had a large number of projects planned for this winter as part of our effort to upgrade our facilities.  Harsher than normal weather has made working inside has been the preferred activity.  We are pleased with our progress this winter but our productivity and the patterns of golf course maintenance have been changed by this harsh winter.

We spent the early part of the winter working inside our main maintenance facility building.  This building contains our offices, bathrooms and the mechanics' area.  We replaced old worn linoleum tile with new ceramic tile in the bathrooms.  We cleaned and painted the floors in the mechanics' area.  In the main equipment storage  area we built walls from the floor to the ceilings to create a cleaner more finished look.  We have also taken this time to make new tee markers and refurbish our benches.

Several projects  around the Hog hole and near the pump station on the South golf course are being undertaken.  For several years we have had problems with the irrigation lines in the dam of the
south golf course lake and under the Hog hole bridges.  Whenever the weather changed,  we would have expansion and contraction of our irrigation lines. From this movement of the irrigation lines, leaks would develop.  Each year we would repair these leaks  and then they would reappear in the late fall as the weather became colder.  We have decided to do a major rebuild of this six inch mainline in this area with some new fittings specifically engineered for situations like this in the hope that we can eliminate this problem. We will start next week by removing the asphalt cart path in this area.

In conjunction with this irrigation project we will also be improving the two Hog hole bridges. We are going to be adding new decking and railings to both Hog hole bridges. We have secured a source for full cut, pressure treated long leaf pine boards.  We will run 1x6  boards on top of the existing boards and perpendicular to the existing decking. We will then remove the existing 4x4 railings and replace them with full cut 6x6 longleaf pine boards creating a rail similar to the railings on the North golf course.

Both of these projects will cause disruption to the traffic patterns for golf carts on the 18th hole.  We will try and minimize these disruptions  and complete our work as efficiently as possible.  When all of these projects are complete we plan to repave the cartpaths from the 18th green to the hog hole green and up the hill to the cart staging area.

We have already completed stabilization work at the dam overflow  by the Hog hole tees.  Heavy storms frequently cause the rip rap in this area to move and we periodically have to move these rocks back to the dam area in order to protect the structural integrity of the dam.

This week we have also been repainting our fairways and tees with Endurant colorant.  We are applying 5 gallons of paint per acre with an additional pint of pigment to boost the intensity of the color.  It has been three months since we last painted and a second applicatiuon of paint is a common practice.  It is our hope that this application will give us good color until the Bermuda grass breaks dormancy.