There, I said it. Look closely at the line of stumps in this picture. And there are more that you cannot see here, unfortunately.
I call this a rape because it is tragically an arborists worst nightmare. These, what used to be twisted ficus trees, literally lined the I-75 freeway and a subdivision called Towngate for miles and provided so much shade I can only compare it to a giant umbrella.
And they were not hurting anything like sidewalks or roads either. So, why cut them all down and replace with oaks and mahoganys? I have no idea, but I would venture to guess that somebody needed the work.
But this is a rape in all of it's worse ways. Why plant them in the first place if you knew you wouldn't like the end result? These trees get huge in a short amount of time and have a massive and extensive root system, so I could understand if they were tearing up the sidewalks, but they simply blocked the view of the freeway for all of these homeowners. I love Pembroke Pines, Florida as much as anyone else here, but this is a travesty. If I were to cut down a single tree in my yard I would be fined $150. a day! But these guys can cut all they want. And it's not like they are replanting them. These are going straight to the mulcher.
Imagine the fuss made over two trees poisoned at Auburn University not too long ago. The person responsible faces fines and jail time. But cut down a slew of trees in Pembroke Pines and nobody says a word. I have no power to change this, unfortunately, but I hope that everyone reading this blog sees the hypocrisy in all of this and forwards my message. One thing I've always liked about the area is all of the trees planted here, but sometimes the city overdoes it. This is a clear cut example of overdoing it. What they should be focusing on is limiting the trees that are not indigenous to the Florida planted by developers. They love to plant oaks and mahoganys because they are cheap and look great when they are young, but as they grow the roots tear up everything in site, which leads to heftier assessments by associations to fix sidewalks, gutters, and roads. But why should the developer care? They are long gone by then. The biggest mistake, tree wise, ever made in South Florida was the planting of a slew of melaleuca trees, native to Austrailia, to suck up water in the everglades. Now the darn things are everywhere and can't be killed because some bonehead neglected to do his research and find that these trees can only be killed by a bug native to Australia! And they are not very pretty to look at either, but these twisted ficus really were special. I just wish you could have seen them.
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