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South Florida Prepares to Lift Citrus Tree Ban03-13-06 | News

South Florida Prepares to Lift Citrus Tree Ban

These limes have been infected with citrus canker, a disease that blemishes the fruit and weakens the tree, eventually causing it to lose production.

Since 1994, the state and federal governments have spent nearly $1 billion to try to stop the spread of citrus canker. In January, the federal government declared that their efforts were in vain and announced that funding to fight the disease would end due to hurricanes that hit the area and spread the disease so widely that it became unstoppable.

Now, agriculture officials in Florida are preparing to lift a ban on citrus trees and give the go ahead for the trees to be planted again in residential areas.
?EUR??,,????'??People need to understand they are planting at their own risk,?EUR??,,????'?? said Denise Feiber, spokesperson for the Florida Department of Agriculture.

Approximately 850,000 residential trees have been taken down from more than 300,000 homes throughout the state, the majority of them in south Florida. In addition to the residential trees, scores of commercial trees were uprooted and burned as part of the efforts to stop the disease.

Source: Miami Herald