TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Residents Get Day In Court To Protest Tree Removal

ADVERTISEMENT

By BRIAN SKOLOFF, The Associated Press

Published: October 16, 2007

Updated: 10/16/2007 01:33 am

WEST PALM BEACH - The state owes nearly 41,000 Palm Beach County residents fair compensation after removing citrus trees from their yards in a failed decadelong effort to eradicate a harmful bacteria, an attorney said Monday during opening statements in a class-action lawsuit.

The state, however, argues the more than 66,000 trees were worthless because of their exposure to canker.

The Palm Beach County case is the first of five pending lawsuits against the state to go to trial over efforts to stop the spread of canker. The disease can be transferred by birds, humans and wind, makes fruit blemish and prompts it to drop prematurely. It does not harm humans but threatened the state's citrus industry.

The tree removal program began in 1995, and ended last year after state officials and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which helped pay for the program, determined that hurricanes had spread the disease beyond containment.

'This case is about the deprivation of private property in violation of our state constitution,' plaintiffs' attorney Robert Gilbert said.

All citrus trees within a 1,900-foot radius of one infected with canker were ordered destroyed. About 16.5 million residential, nursery and commercial trees were destroyed statewide, including more than 800,000 from the yards of homeowners.

The program compensated residents with $100 vouchers for the first tree cut down and $55 for each tree after, but has spawned lawsuits from angry homeowners who say that wasn't enough.

Circuit Judge Robin Rosenberg now must determine whether the uninfected trees removed in Palm Beach County had value. If so, a jury during a separate trial will determine that value.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT