Landscape Architect Articles

Purge or Protect?01-09-07 | News

Purge or Protect?

Cinnamomum camphora at a Florida nursery. Camphors proliferate in Florida woodlands because berry-eating birds spread their seeds, often from nurseries. For now, Winter Park, Fla. has voted to keep the tree protected from the axe.

Just a short drive north of Orlando lies the enclave of Winter Park, whose Tree Protection Board just voted 3-2 in favor of keeping camphor trees on the preferred species list, meaning they can?EUR??,,????'???t be cut down without a permit.

The camphor (Cinnamomum camphora), aka the camphor laurel, native to China and Japan and cultivated for more than a century as a shade and ornamental tree in Florida, was the source for the camphor used in medicines and mothballs before camphor oil was synthesized in the 1920s.

Camphors really like the Florida climate and grow like weeds. The University of Florida Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants says camphors are infesting the state?EUR??,,????'???s forests and displacing native trees.

Stephen Pategas, a landscape architect on the Winter Park Tree Protection Board believes camphors should not be protected, given their great numbers.

He wants them to slowly disappear from the landscape and be replaced with more appropriate trees.

Nearby Wekiwa Springs State Park, a heavily forested area with natural springs, recently enlisted college students to help pick up an estimated 5,000 camphor seedlings on a three-acre patch of ground.

The debate isn?EUR??,,????'???t over. Winter Park will hold public hearings on proposals for updating its tree ordinances.