Pining over the prospect of a changing landscape
It takes a sense of humor — or maybe just a cockeyed sense of irony — to fully appreciate the squabbles we get ourselves into trying to cope with our neighbors north of the 18-Mile Stretch and our governing elites even further north in Tallahassee.
Sometimes you just can't make up, in your wildest imaginings, the impassioned feuds that erupt over issues that are so, shall we say "exotic."
Currently at issue are the Australian pine trees our pioneering settlers had the audacity (or was it good sense?) to plant near the beach at Fort Zachary Taylor many, many years ago. Who knew this was a bad idea way back then?
Anyhow, these pines remain today (at least most of them do) providing welcome shade for picnics and, also, serve as ultraviolet filters for sunbathers. Such is the innocent nature of our live-and-let-live culture here in Key West.
But a couple of years ago, our naïve ignorance was revealed when the state Department of Parks, presumably at the urging of expert advisors, issued a forceful mandate: No more exotics (meaning non-native trees or plants) will henceforth be tolerated. They must be scheduled for removal in timely fashion and replaced by native species.
Thus the feud began.
The Citizen has diligently reported the arguments pro and con and we won't rehash them again — except to observe that however inappropriate the Australian Pines may be according to state policy, it is clearly evident they have accommodated themselves nicely to this windswept green space at the entrance to our harbor. Folks here love them for the benefits they provide as well as the way they look and even the way they sound when the wind is blowing.
Some months ago, the status of these trees appeared to have been settled when Save Our Pines, a local volunteer group, and the park service reached a mutually agreeable compromise. The existing mature pines will be preserved in a zone within the picnic area unless, or until, they pose a safety hazard or storm damage requires their removal. There's a big loop hole, though. The long-term future of the trees remains threatened because this does not allow for any new growth.
The compromise did not hold for long. As it happens, a long overdue project to replenish and stabilize the beach was authorized and, to facilitate this work, 74 of the existing 847 pines were immediately painted and tagged for removal. Save Our Pines once again resisted. As a result, park management wisely declared a moratorium to await completion and assessment of an erosion study. That's where matters stand today, still unresolved but with some possibility of a further compromise.
Frankly, the editors responsible for this page are not expert arborists. Even so, we are on safe ground in asserting that the new Florida beyond the 18-Mile Stretch is often deaf, dumb and blind to the historic Florida as represented by Key West. Here, our sensibilities are instinctively protective of the unique, irreplaceable, valuable and picturesque assets this tiny island possesses. This is a special sense of stewardship that is deserving of respect and community support. And, to our way of thinking, it legitimately extends to a stand of old pines in a small public park near an old fortress that once guarded a harbor that sustained our commerce and insured our food, fuel and just about everything else required for civilized life hereabouts.
Key West is not plastic, not neon, not Disney World. We don't always readily embrace the latest dictates of scientists whose faddish ideas too often determine government policies. Moreover, we definitely don't want a park so over endowed with food, beverage, generic looking hospitality structures and other amenities that mimic the look of every other park in Florida. In short, we've been here a long time, thank you very much, and we don't need government guidance on when to chop down trees that have also been here a long, long time.
Is it implausible to hope that the state's civil engineers can figure out how to replenish a beach without destroying trees the community would prefer to keep, just for old time's sake?
— The Citizen
Published Key West Citizen 5/19/06
