Week 3 Update

Before I get into the pictures, let me say that some of these may be alarming. In order to complete the work on the creek, some trees and brush needed to come out. Most of these trees were fast growing Cottonwood and Willow. The brush was predominately invasive honeysuckle and buckthorn. When seeing the project halfway through completion, you see the absence of trees but not the almost 130 new trees that will be planted. We made it a priority to only remove the trees and brush that is necessary for the project. The end result of this project will be a net environmental gain in reduced sediment and phosphorous that goes from Traver Creek into the Huron River.

That being said, here are some pictures from this week.

The pond is almost fully dredged.

Cobblestone and rock walls will be installed this week along this bank.

The cobblestone being delivered.

That is a big excavator. 3.5 scoops fills up the nearly 20 yard off-road dump truck.

Looking at the bridge between #17 Green and #18 Tee. You can now see the pumphouse and barn from here.

In this picture form 2 years ago, you can see the cleared area to the left.

The view from what used to be #10 tee. The topsoil has been stripped and stockpiled. Soil from the project will be used to raise this area out of the floodplain. It will then be sodded with bentgrass in the fairway and tees. The rough will be seeded.

#10 Tee earlier this year.

The area near old #14 tee where the pond spoils are being mounded.

In this shot from 2009, you can see the valley that was filled in. It will not effect play, since this area was well to the left of where the current tee sits.

#13 Tee.

A picture of the tee from of few years ago. Notice the dense underbrush along the creek. This area will be replaced with high quality wetland habitat.

Here is the practice green from #13 Tee.

Another shot of the practice green. Notice #13 tee and #11 fairway in the background.

This picture is from almost the same angle. You can make out the large Oak trees to the left of #13 tee in the background.

Here is the new diversion ditch for Traver Creek. The previous solution of two 8 inch and one 6 inch pipe did not work as well as planned. The contractor decided to line this open air ditch with plastic instead.

Construction Update for Week 2

Dredging of the pond continued in week 2.

Here you can see the temporary "road" that has been built in order to get the dump trucks and excavators out into the pond.

Some trees have been cut in order to get access to the creek. They will be replaced with native trees and shrubs.

Spoils from the pond are mixed with soil in order to dry the spoils out.

Loading up the off-road dump trucks.

Mixing the spoils near old #14 tee.

Construction Work Begins

On Monday, October 29th, LJ Construction began working at the Leslie Park Golf Course. They pumped down the north pond.

They made a diversion channel to change the flow of Traver Creek while they work on the north pond.

They started stripping topsoil from the area to the west of #14 tee and stockpiling it for use later. This is an area where spoils from the pond will be moved.

New tee for #10

With the Traver Creek Project set to start at the end of October, we have begun construction of of new forward tee on #10. When Leslie Park opens back up in April, the front half of #10 fairway will be raised to eliminate drainage issues and re-sodded. Until the fairway is able to sustain play, we will use this new tee as the teeing grounds for all play on this hole. It will be around 220 yards long, but because of the creek running in front of the green, staff still thinks it will play as a par 4.

The new tee is on the right side, just after the beginning of the fairway. We stripped the sod and set it out in the parking lot while we built the tee up. The above picture shows the area after we stripped the sod and leveled out the hill that was there. We have just started to put down fill.

The workmen line up to dump the loads of topsoil.

Getting close.

This is pretty close to the final product.

The teeing surface is painted out and lined up.

Sod was taken from the fairway to lay on the tee.

The rough surrounding the tee got a little dry while in the parking lot, but should pull through.

Laying out the tee.

Now it just needs to grow in. It should be ready to go by April 1st.

Turtle Relocation - Status Update Week 3 (Oct. 1 - 5)

Week 3 - Day 1: After a disappointing week of not finding any turtles, spirits were low heading into the third week. That is why we were pleasantly surprised to find turtle tracks in the muck at the north pond. This was a good sign of what was to come. By the end of the day we had caught and relocated 4 turtles! (One large female, two males and one juvenile-all painted turtles). Interestingly enough, there were no turtles in our nets. Instead, they were spotted basking and swimming in both the north and south ponds. Special thanks goes to our super volunteer Sean Zera for wading through the muck and algae in order to rescue these turtles.

Week 3 - Day 2: The second day was almost as eventful as the first! The dynamic duo of David Mifsud and Sean Zera spotted a green frog and another juvenile painted turtle, however both herptiles managed to get away. We also heard a spring peeper calling near the south pond. But   the star of the day was a male snapping turtle that David Mifsud found in the marshy area next to the south pond.  

Week 3 - Day 3: Nothing to report today. Cooler temperatures must have scared the turtles away ...Hoping for better luck tomorrow!

Week 3 - Day 4: NAP's intern, Josh Goldman, found a female snapper in one of our traps at the south pond. Sean Zera bravely wrestled her out of the net-she was a feisty one! Her estimated age is 40 years and she weighs about 20 pounds. In addition, Sean Zera and David Mifsud rescued a beautiful female Butler's garter snake that was trying to cross Traver Road.

Turtle Relocation - Status Update Week 2 (Sept. 24 - 28)

Despite our best efforts, no turtles were found in the south pond during the second week of relocation. The weather was not as pleasant as the first week, so perhaps the turtles were seeking refuge in the muck. However, we did find a bunch of fish and a couple crayfish in our nets.

In addition to searching for turtles in the south pond, a team was sent to draw down the water level in the north pond. We were hoping that a lower water level might encourage turtles to move around more, enabling us to catch them with scoop nets, but this method proved to be unsuccessful.