What is Traffic Compaction?
First off, traffic compaction is an area of high traffic to where the soil and turf will compress due to the excessive volume of impact and movement over the surface.
Why is it an issue?
The problem with repetitive traffic in one area is that the compaction of the soil makes the soil very hard and dense. The problem is that oxygen, nutrients, and mostly water have a hard time penetrating the soil to supplement the roots below. This will then cause the roots to grow shallow and begin to stress the turf. End result is yellowing of turf and possible loss of turf.
How can we control it?
On the maintenance end of things, the best degree of care is repetitive aerification, overseeding, and fertilization. The best way to prevent disrupted turf areas is to decrease or eliminate the amount of traffic over that specific area. This can be done by roping the area off, placing signs, or filling the area with some other material such as mulch, gravel, or sand. As a member, everyone can take an active role in helping keep these areas healthy by scattering at the end of cart paths, not taking the same route every round, being aware of high golf cart traffic areas and avoiding them, and keeping carts on the cart paths as much as possible. In doing so the stressed areas will surely recuperate and remain healthy.
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| Here is the end of #9 cart path. As you can tell the earlier loss of turf is at the very end of the path and the early stage is on the left. It's easy to see in this picture that everyone takes the same route off the path. |
