NEFA DISCussion

I have only played 15 courses in and around New england, Virginia, etc.. so I am by no means an expert, however, it occurred to me that a basic element is missing from 90% of course we see and the ones who figured it out are much nicer, have better ratings and a stronger playing community.
Wood Chips!
Every course has down wood in the woods, every course has fairways, if your course is wooded and not open fields and not all grass, and instead there are stones, stumps, roots, etc.. then you need wood chips, they keep you from tripping, they offer a uniform look to every fairway and walk area, they are soft and dont trip you up, and if you do fall your not necessarily going to break your leg.
They are in the woods now, all we need is a few wood chippers and a few volunteers per each course.
I just think after playing over a dozen courses that the one thing that would have made them all better is WOOD CHIPS.

IF we could get some volunteers to the course, so that we could rake and pull out all the down and dead wood on each existing hole and get it to near the T all over the course where applicable, then have another day when we follow that effort up with a couple wood chippers and more volunteers to spread it around, in just 2 or 3 work days we could transform most any course from pretty good and decent to excellent and a pleasure to navigate.

The two biggest issues I see in course are no signage and no wood chips, just saying, it is free to do, and would make the course in most cases a better course more playable and less frustrating for all.

Keeping this short. For a number of reasons, the logistics involved with this are pretty substantial, not nearly enough considering the potential gain (low impact to quality of play compared to other improvements), and really not realistic for a public course. Additionally, most courses I can think of could use work in other areas before we start spreading wood chips around the woods.

The Town of Coeymans drops a load of chips at Joralemon Park every year. Gravel too.
DisCap members and local residents help spread them around the park(and course) at one of the workdays.

It's not rocket science, you just have to get in touch with the right people.

Brewster Ridge at smugglers notch leads the way in wood chips in my experience. That said, I haven't played some Maine courses that seem to have a good amount from the photos I have come across.


Wood chips are nice to have, but not a necessity for quality disc golfing...

"Homemade" wood chips (cut and chipped from wood on the property) are usually a diminishing resource. There's only so much you can cut and chip before you reach a point where you don't want to cut any more lest you end up with nothing but Avery-approved fairways (i.e. not trees at all). Doesn't really lessen the need or desire for chips on the course, just makes acquiring them a bit more tricky and/or expensive.

Local tree companies may dump for free if they are approached.

Niskayuna has to be the most generous town in our area......... Blatnick Park went crazy with the chips at our new course.

Sabattus Disc Golf has the most wood chips I've ever seen, ever. The courses seems to built around a road so I imagine that makes getting the stuff out there easier.

There are a lot of typical New England courses that have rocks, big and small, throughout their fairways. Would putting wood chips around or over these be detrimental? I'd think it would be easier to roll an ankle over a rock or stump that is covered than one that is exposed.

Also would wood chips everywhere detract from the sense that disc golf courses are a part of their natural environments rather than set apart from them? Sabattus is beautiful but it feels more like a golf course because of how well it is manicured. While Sabattus is sweet, I wouldn't want that manicured feeling at every course.

logistical nightmare for some courses, for an aesthetic benefit that does not affect play

there's far more pressing issues!

Wood chips in the woods turn into sloppy crap after a couple years. If your main objective is to establish walking paths to hold up foot traffic then good old fashioned bank run gravel is the way to go.

I had many truckloads dumped for free at rivehead.
I pitched it in a tarp in my truck, drove to a basket and pulled it out.

people don't realize how easy it is to spruce up washed out paths and greens.
it also stopped a lot of roll aways on angled greens
its not good for everthing .

The number one reason for wood chipping fairways is to save the trees from dying due to soil compaction from players walking. More trees are likely lost in disc golf due to soil compaction than from trunks constantly being hit by discs. We had an unofficial experiment in observing two wooded courses installed about the same time in the 90s. One Park Dept kept the wood chips going on the fairways and the other did nothing. Over 15-20 years many of the big oak trees are dead with some having fallen on the course with no wood chips and the trees on the other are still mostly healthy.