Thomas Breen file photo
The Yale Golf Course: 800 trees coming down, 2,000 going up?
Mia Cortés Castro Photos
Alders Festa, Punzo, Ficklin, and Miller at Thursday's CSEP meeting.
Yale plans to cut down roughly 800 trees at the university’s Upper Westville golf course, and plant another 2,000 in their stead, in order to create more grassy space for hitting the links — prompting pushback from neighbors and local environmentalists about the potential harms of felling so much wood.
University officials detailed those plans Thursday night during a public hearing hosted by the City Services and Environmental Policy (CSEP) Committee in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.
Yale representatives said that they needed to push back the tree line that had been encroaching on a nearly century old golf playing area, and that they would replant 2,000 trees to replace the roughly 800 trees that will be lost. Neighbors and other critics questioned why so many trees need to be torn down initially, and what the project’s fallout might be in terms of pesticide use and water runoff and just losing some of the area’s natural beauty.
Neighbors waiting to testify.
Detailing the area where the trees will be torn down and (in dark green) replanted.
The meeting was originally requested by the New Haven Environmental Advisory Council, chaired by Laura Cahn, in order to discuss the consequences that the proposed construction project at the Yale Golf Course could have on surrounding natural areas and neighborhoods. At the meeting, a dozen neighbors turned out to speak up to the committee alders about their concerns.
Laura Cahn: "How much more water damage due to removing trees and moving soil will be done?"
“I understand why trees need to be cut down, but not why we need to cut down so many,” said Cahn.
Looking Back To 1926 Layout
Jeromy Powers presenting the 1926 aerial view of the Yale Golf Course.
As part of a plan to restore the Yale Golf Course to what it was when it was constructed in 1926, the proposed construction plan involves cutting down 800 trees in order to push back the tree line of the golf course, allowing for the same play space that was allotted when the course was initially built. Each fairway would be increased by around five to ten yards.
Click here to read a previous article by the New Haven Register’s Mary O’Leary about Yale’s water quality permit application to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection that details the tree-felling and golf-course-renovation plan.
According to the project’s lead architect, Jeromy Powers, this tree-cutting is necessary as the tree line has been slowly encroaching on the fairway, the main playing area, which both affects the quality of play and shades the grass, requiring more herbicide and pesticide use due to lack of sunlight damaging the grass.
Yale plans to replant 2,000 trees to replace these 800 and replace the current irrigation system with a new, more efficient, and sustainable one.
“With the trees moving in over the years and the greens getting smaller, we need to build back internally into the site,” said Yale Golf Course General Manager Peter Palacios. “Today’s players are better than they used to be and they hit the ball further.”
Thomas Breen file photo
In order to complete the construction project, a hauling road would need to be constructed through the Yale Nature Preserve, behind Longhill Terrace, which would be partially responsible for the need to cut down so many trees. Pending approval from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the project is set to begin in October 2023, and would end around August 2025.
Both portions of the plan concerned neighbors, who said they have already seen damages from current maintenance practices at the golf course. Neighboring houses to the golf course have seen reduced porousness to their soil and deposition of pesticides, which has led to intense flowing and lack of absorption of water. For some, these problems have even damaged infrastructure, as the pressure of the water has cracked the structures of their homes, and there are few non-flooded basements left in the houses surrounding and near the golf course.
With fewer trees and therefore fewer roots, the soil of the golf course will become less absorbent, critics testified, potentially increasing flooding for these properties and associated damages. For residents already dealing with difficult-to-repair damages, this could mean a point of no return in terms of damages to their land.
“My grounds are still saturated days after it rains,” testified Curtis Drive resident Chet Thompson. “I have to be checking the weather if I want to do anything outside and push back family events days after it’s supposed to rain.”
Mia Cortés Castro Photo
Peter Palacios.
The new irrigation and water control plan for the golf course consists of increasing the water supply readily available at the golf course, and a new underground drainage system both on the new access road and behind houses constructed on Yale property, which diverges water behind houses instead of down the street in order to reduce flooding in residences.
Palacios said that Yale has submitted a stormwater management report for the project detailing the contributions that the new irrigation system will make to reduce flooding in nearby properties. The “robust stormwater plan” consists of rainwater being collected in ponds on the golf course, which will then be reused to water the grass rather than discharged. He also mentioned the installation of stormwater quality units throughout the course and on Stevenson Road, a major area of concern for residents.
However, despite improved irrigation systems, neighbors are still worried about the vast amount of water used to maintain the golf course every day, much of which, charged with pesticides and soil runoff, is deposited into and contaminates nearby bodies of water, such as the Maltby Lakes.
Though the irrigation plan includes emptying current ponds of all of the sediment that fills them, allowing the course to draw more water from the ponds than from city reservoirs, the golf course is still a major drainage point for city freshwater resources.
“The Yale Golf Course uses 200,000 gallons of water each day,” reported Cahn. “Yale has started using municipal water instead of water from their own wells and reservoirs, especially during the wintertime.”
Besides concerns about flooding, the potential effects of the hauling road were also brought up by neighbors who testified. They described the negative consequences that the road could have on both the ambiance of the neighborhood and the nature of the Yale Preserve, which serves as the backyard of many residents of the area.
What About Water Runoff? Pesticides?
Johanna Elumn: "Protect the beautiful nature reserve in our backyards."
“Cutting down these trees is disruptive to our community,” said Johanna Elumn, whose house is located close to where the road would be. “These trees block runoff from coming into our backyards, noise, and light from Route 15.”
Butler asked himself and the Board of Alders how having this road running behind his house will affect his quality of life. Butler and a few other neighbors wondered if the trucks would run at night, disrupting peaceful sleep. Another neighbor, Michelle Spence, brought up health concerns, wondering if the dust dispersed by the trucks on the road will dirty up her home and cause breathing problems for herself and her family.
Tony Butler: "I've got more questions than I have testimony... when and how will we get answers from Yale?"
Health concerns were also brought up by Cahn, who noted that the pesticides used to maintain the Yale Golf Course can cause serious health complications.
“Environmental harm is a health and safety problem,” said Cahn. “Roundup, the pesticide being used, causes Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and many have already been sickened by exposure.”
Michelle Spence and her husband, Keith Spence.
These concerns were addressed by Powers, who said that with better irrigation systems, the pesticides would be in the water entering the grass and no longer in the air. This response, however, doesn’t address the concern of the pesticides that run off into the water.
Alders requested more data on the impacts of the project, pesticide and water use, and land area before closing out the public hearing for the night.
When the golf course was designed in 1926, there was a limited understanding of the full range of the environmental services trees provide and virtually no understanding of climate change. Just because a design made sense nearly a century ago does not necessarily mean that it makes sense now.