By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
By virtue of its name, Elkhorn’s Evergreen Golf Club has long been noted for the variety of towering pines throughout its hundreds of acres of property.
But many of the trees unintentionally came under threat within the past year as the grounds were treated for invasive species.
To date, nearly 1,000 of Evergreen’s pines have been infected or killed from a new treatment, believed to have been safe, known as Imprelis.
The herbicide was manufactured by chemical maker DuPont.
While Imprelis did rid Evergreen’s course of noxious weeds – including buckthorn, garlic mustard and dandelions – the treatment also managed to choke trees of the nutrients needed to survive.
A variety of trees have been impacted on Evergreen’s grounds, including Norwegian and Colorado spruces and honey locusts.
Mike Smedan, head of Evergreen’s grounds crew, said 993 pines have been impacted by the Imprelis treatments conducted early in 2011.
The trees are at various stages of impact on a 1-5 scale, one being the least severe – and potentially salvageable – and five being imminent death.
Evergreen’s story is not unique when it comes to the Imprelis treatments.
A variety of property owners – including other golf course operators and single-family homeowners – also have cited instances of severe damage and loss to trees.
A year ago, DuPont set up a website, www.imprelis-facts.com, and began a formal claims process for property owners adversely impacted by Imprelis.
In a statement issued a year ago, Michael McDermott, global business leader with DuPont, said the company is committed to working with impacted property owners promptly and fairly.
“I want to underscore DuPont’s commitment to our customers’ satisfaction, and to responsible stewardship of our product,” McDermott said. “We sincerely regret any tree injuries that Imprelis may have caused.”
A variety of lawn care specialists across the nation began using Imprelis because it varied from other forms of herbicidal treatments. While it generally cost more, comparatively, the treatment was to have been used more sparingly from similar products with similar results.
While on the market, Imprelis also was touted as an environmentally-friendly product because applications were fewer and farther between.
As word got out about the prevalence of tree damage and deaths, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stepped in Aug. 11, 2011. From that date onward, the federal agency banned the sale of Imprelis.
As part of its claims process, DuPont has been enlisting the services of professional arborists to assess the full extent of damage,
Smedan said 407 of Evergreen’s trees – representing less than half of the entire population affected – have already been removed and replaced at DuPont’s cost. At an unknown point in the future, Smedan said remediation is to take place with some of the 586 other trees impacted.
Amid the setbacks and challenges for a golf course long lauded for its lush vegetation, Smedan is stoic about the overall situation.
“It’s something that happens, I guess,” he said.
