With our first good winter in the last 4 years, the native areas are growing like gangbusters. When the natives get out of control, it has a big impact on how quickly the game is played. For that reason, and a few others, we are slowly making our way through the course and chopping the native areas down.
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| What was once a safe haven for rodents is now open season for the raptors. |
Another reason we cut them down is for weed control. The idea behind that is that you give the grasses the competitive advantage and choke out the weeds. This doesn't happen overnight, but there are areas that have less weeds which have been chopped down annually. This year is an anomaly as there are more thistle than I have ever seen before.
Lastly, we chop them down for rodent control. Does that one catch you by surprise? Take a look at our worst rodent infested roughs on the course. 4/5 Mountain, 7 Mountain, 7 Canyon ( I know there are more). All blanketed by heavy grass and weed growth. The reason rodents do so well is because they take cover from raptors in the taller grass and weeds. Can it still be called natural selection if we are giving the raptors an edge?
