With spring-like temperatures finally upon us, the City of Edmonton is opening some of its sports fields this week.
On Wednesday, the city announced rectangular fields (soccer fields) will open on Friday.
“Our in house sports fields crews have been monitoring the fields over the last few weeks as the snow has melted rapidly in preparation for the season,” Travis Kennedy, open space operations general supervisor, said.
“We’ve really been looking for moisture content in the soil profile to determine when we’re going to have minimal compaction impact by using our fields.”
Kennedy said an update will be provided on Monday on the opening of shale diamonds, but officials said that could be delayed by a day or two if there is moisture in the forecast before then.
READ MORE: Delayed opening of Edmonton sports fields upsets soccer group
The city said the difference in opening dates is due to shale diamonds retaining more moisture, with some diamonds still having standing water and significant saturation.
The city is also asking residents to stay off the fields until the opening dates because usage beforehand could cause damage.
If you think this is unusually late for city fields to open, you’re wrong.
READ MORE: Edmonton sports fields could open sooner than scheduled date
The scheduled openings are about a week earlier than last year when it took until the second week of May for all fields to be opened.
“This year, we’re fortunate. We have a rapid drying sect, you can feel the wind, so the fields have been drying rapidly,” Kennedy said.
“With this increased heat over the last week, we’re in a better position than we were last year.”
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The city also said a new program will start in May where herbicide Iron Chelate will be applied to 60 per cent of the fields to get rid of weeds. The program was established after a high number of dandelions popped up on sports fields last year.
Kennedy said the “aggressive” Iron Chelate program will help with the dandelions, though he admits it won’t completely eliminate the weed.
“Once it does get growing, we’ve planned a weekly mow cycle of our entire inventory from May 15 to July 1,” Kennedy said.
“We’ve been staffing up and adding equipment through the winter months in anticipation of a busy season.”
The herbicide will be applied up to four times on select fields, Kennedy said.
Last December, city council agreed to spend $3 million more on turf maintenance for its sports fields: an extra $1 million will be used to bring back the iron chelate and $2 million will be spent on mowing more often.
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