Tree Planting North Course

As part of the North Course renovation project we installed 18 Oak trees on the North Course last week. The species of Oak trees we use are native to SE Michigan and Oakland County: White Oak, Bur Oak, Red Oak, Swamp White Oak and Chinkapin Oak. We also added a Kentucky Coffee tree -  native to SE MI - to the bottom of hole number one.

A total of 121 trees will be removed and approximately 70 trees added as part of the renovation. A net loss of 50 trees is less than 10% of the total tree inventory.


Planting trees should be carefully considered. It costs $1,000 to plant a tree: cost of the tree, transportation, labor, materials, rental equipment etc. Yet this is just a down payment. Like a mortgage, we will spend 10 times this amount over the course of a trees' life in added maintenance cost: pruning, mulching, leaf cleanup, weak turf ... and eventual removal. By planting 70 trees we have added an additional $700,000 in long-term costs!

There are very few original, native trees on either golf course. Most of the trees you see are "man-planted", not native and many are considered "invasive" species by the Michigan DNR. Invasive species like Silver Maples (think helicopters) add maintenance costs as they require constant pruning and their roots and leaves weaken surrounding turf.