By TED MAST Charbonneau resident

This is a little tale about how five trees became problem solvers and turned into a feelgood story for Charbonneau. We have to begin several years ago when the Charbonneau Golf Club and Country Club were not merged and when the facilities were in need of updating. Chris Bensel and his staff got tired of explaining to golf patrons from outside our community that the somewhat ugly looking old restaurant building next door was not part of the golf course. Chris finally planted five fast-growing conifer trees on the west end of the putting green with the sole intent of eventually shielding the building from view.

Fast forward several years and we have so much to be proud of here. That old building is gone and replaced by our new Activity Center. The Clubhouse has had a major exterior facelift with an indoor remodel coming soon. The Pavilion is a great outdoor space and the Sport Court is fully up and running with beautiful front landscaping. Seemingly, everyone is happy.

As one more facility started going up, the new golf cart

storage building( a pole barn with metal sides and a roof) calls start coming in to General Manager Jim Meierotto’ s office. Residents who had not previously complained made it known that the intense sun glare off the roof of the sport court meant they had to close their blinds by 3 p. m. every day to block it out.

Leave it to Chris, our local golf pro, to come up with the perfect solution. Let’ s move those five trees. With some guidance from Nathan Lawrence, certified arborist and owner of Good News Tree Service and the experts from Big Trees Today, out of Hillsboro, the project began. Big Trees Today and their truck mounted a 90” tree spade went to work moving the two big Leyland Cypress first. Each of these trees and their 11,000- pound root balls were dug and transplanted over between the fairways of Yellow # 1 and Yellow # 9. Already 20 plus feet tall, they will reach a height of 50-60 feet tall and have a spread of up to 20 feet. We have blocked the glare off the sport court. Chris did not stop there; he had Garron Grounds Management landscape company plant a row of laurel the entire length of the sport court building. The variety selected will

STAFF PHOTO: JAIME VALDEZ

Cypress trees( in the background) were recently planted to block the glare coming from the roof from the new sports center in Charbonneau.

grow 10-12 feet tall and 5-6 feet wide, further softening the look of the big metal building. As to the new cart barn, its roof will slope away from Honors Loop residents’ view and the sides will be painted a dark color to tie in with the look of the clubhouse building.

Three trees to go, all western red cedars. Jim Meierotto had previously been working with residents from Fairway Village Condos who, during construction of the Sports Center, chimed in and voiced their opinion on how they felt about looking at the north end of a big metal building. There were a couple of Norway maple trees there that were not doing well and were removed last year. Jim saw the opportunity to use the final three trees at this location so