To Replant or Not to Replant?

 

Aventura, Fla., a city only 10 years old in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area.

Aventura, Fla., dubbed the ?EUR??,,????'??City of Excellence,?EUR??,,????'?? has approved a $1.5 million plan to replant the city landscape ravaged by hurricanes Katrina and Wilma, storms that arrived just 60 days apart. Aventura?EUR??,,????'???s main road, Country Club Drive, suffered the most. Many of the black olive and ficus trees toppled and blocked the street.

With hurricane season less than six months away, some city commissioners fretted about replanting so soon. However, the city commission approval was made at the Jan. 19 meeting with the landscape architecture firm of O’Leary Richards Design Associates, who allayed some of those fears. The plan calls for more palms (royal and coconut), as most of the palms survived the previous hurricanes, plus live oaks and crape myrtles and oleander for color. About 450 trees (350 palms) and 27,000 shrubs will be replaced.