Florida Community Protects Landscapes with Storm-Resistant Trees

Hunters Run, Fla., may hold the record for the number of trees down in the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005, a testament to how lush its tree canopy was before Frances, Jeanne, Ivan and Wilma hit. It still is.

"We lost more than 2,000 trees in Frances alone, and probably another 500 in Wilma," said Mary Watkins, chief operating officer and general manager who has run the golf and country club in Boynton Beach for 10 years.

"We've spent more than a half-million dollars on tree replacement on two of our three golf courses, and now we're putting in another half-million on the third. We did the tree replacement because of aesthetics, and we're still not finished," she said.

With hurricane season in full swing, gated community residents who ultimately paid to replace the trees through insurance or assessments are hoping for the best.

"What did we learn? We're not planting trees that are susceptible to being blown over. We lost close to 100 ficus inside our walls and have replaced all of them with oaks, even the ones that didn't come down ... We didn't want to go through damage again caused by trees toppling," said Marty Weissman, vice president of Valencia Lakes, west of Boynton Beach. "And we hired a tree trimmer who's a licensed arborist. We have him thin the trees ... so the wind will blow through them, not blow them over."

After the hurricanes, Palm Beach County put together a list of more wind-resistant native trees to replace the ficus, types of palms and Australian pines that were casualties of the storms. And commissioners approved a more lenient tree replacement policy, shelving the old one-for-one rule.

"I wouldn't put the burden on the communities to replace tree for tree," said County Commissioner Burt Aaronson. "If something happens now, it will depend on the amount of damage and we would probably give them a length of time."

Communities had two replacement deadlines: January 2007 for trees on the perimeters, buffers and rights of ways; and Jan. 1, 2008, for all landscaping.

But there's no tree police, and the county is counting on communities' civic pride and curb appeal for resales to police themselves when it comes to replacing trees downed or damaged in storms.

"We're going to have HOAs [homeowner associations] enforce themselves; we don't have the manpower," said Rodney Swonger, senior zoning/landscape field representative in the Department of Planning, Zoning and Building.

"We lost $700,000 in landscaping" in the 2004 storms, said Fran Fischer, president of Valencia Lakes.

All the trees on individual lots belong to the homeowners, many of whom planted additional trees on their own in that development, Marty said.

"We had the huge ficus trees that were all destroyed. We replaced them with oaks, palms and sabals and royal palms, and a landscape designer did all the tree replacement" in Hunters Run, Marty said.