Too much gray hair.

This winter has added at least 10% gray to my hair.  With the unseasonably cold temperatures persisting well into March, superintendents throughout the Great Lakes/Upper midwest region have been worrying, pulling hair out, drinking, and debating about what to do with the growing layer of ice on our Poa annua greens.  With the rain, thaw, and snow cycle we had two weeks ago (which we all hoped would thaw things out much more than it did), our ice layer has grown.  We are now approaching nearly two months with between a 0.5 and 2-inch solid ice layer on our greens, which is very near the threshold that Poa annua can handle. As I've mentioned before, solid ice seals up and traps toxic gases that plants can only tolerate for a certain amount of time depending on the species.  After much consideration, research, and collaboration with other superintendents and scientists, we have decided to go out and remove the snow cover from our greens.

The picture isn't the best illustration, but this is solid ice about 1" thick on 8 green.

The decision to exert this effort was not taken lightly.  We aren't particularly well equipped or staffed for this task as this level of snow management is scarce in our part of the country.  With a little help from a couple of dedicated employees, some snow shovels and the snow blower from the clubhouse, we have set out to get as much snow off as possible.  We begin by using our skid steer loader to make a "cart path" to access each green.  After that we use our skid steer loader and snow blower to remove as much snow as possible.   Sand pro blades will push the last of the "crusty snow" off down to the solid ice.  While driving such aggressive equipment onto greens may seem potentially damaging, keep in mind we are on over an inch of solid ice over frozen ground.  I don't think we could damage the greens if we wanted to. We will experiment with some sand applications or other things to add color and create heat to help melting further.

Winter "cart path"

Blowing snow off of #5 green.  

Blowing, pushing, and shoveling off 15 green.

Our goal is not to completely remove the ice layer ourselves, but merely remove the insulating snow atop it.  We took a careful look at the upcoming forecast and it looks like we will finally see daytime highs at or above freezing for a few days along with some sunshine.   This will hopefully help the ice melt more quickly and allow the greens a fresh breath of air sooner than later.

By no means will this guarantee we have no winter ice damage on our putting surfaces.  I am only trying to help the greens see the light of day just as soon as Mother Nature will allow.   For a great article from Michigan State University Extension about this issue, please follow the link below.

http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/what_lies_beneath_ice