Tree Removal Project Upsets Neighbors

The Brazilian pepper tree, considered a threat to Florida’s native habitat, is being removed from an area near a major highway, upsetting homeowners in the area.

The Brazilian pepper tree is one of the most aggressive invasive species in Florida. Experts describe the tree as a serious threat to Florida’s native habitat.

But the trees do not look so bad when they are the only thing separating your backyard from six lanes of loud interstate traffic.

Homeowners near Interstate 75 in Sarasota, Fla. and other area counties have stood aghast as many of the trees that buffer them from the traffic are being removed as part of a state project to remove invasive trees from the freeway’s medians and rights-of-way.

“This is a major impact to this community,” said Robert Hernandez, who lives in the Waterford subdivision next to I-75 near Venice. “I don’t think it would hurt Florida, the aquifer or bugs or anything if they keep this here and help us along.”

The $450,000 project, which began in Collier County and has been moving north at a pace of about 8 miles per week, has reached southern Sarasota County. It is scheduled to hit Manatee County early next month.

About 4,500 feet of the Waterford subdivision, a gated residential and golf community, fronts I-75.

The buffer of trees and shrubs between it and the interstate includes dozens of Brazilian peppers.

Residents in one Sarasota subdivision say removing the trees will add noise to their neighborhood and ruin their view. They want the state to leave the trees there until 2010, when a widening of I-75 is scheduled to begin.

But state officials say they cannot make exceptions for any communities or property owners. Leaving behind some of the trees would allow them to spread again, said Cindy Clemmons-Adente, a Florida Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

“It’s an all-or-nothing project,” Clemmons-Adente said. “We’re trying to remove an invasive species. We can’t leave pockets of it.”

As the name suggests, Brazilian peppers are from South America.

The tree was likely introduced to the United States as an ornamental in the mid-1800s, according to the Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants at the University of Florida.

The number of Brazilian peppers in south and central Florida has increased dramatically in the past 30 years, said Bill Haller, director of the center. Once established, the trees make it difficult for native trees such as red maple and wax myrtle to thrive.

“Like a lot of exotics, they outcompete all of our native plants,” Haller said of the Brazilian peppers. “Nothing can grow underneath them once they grow tight and thick, and they can grow very thick.”

It is that tight and thick growth that some Waterford residents wish to keep. About 53,000 cars go past the community daily on I-75.

“I-75 in this area happens to be kind of raised,” Hernandez said. “If you take out trees, it’s that much more noticeable. The pepper trees are doing us some good here; that’s what it amounts to.”

Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune

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