JAYCEE PARK TREES
Jul 18, 2024 | CAPE CORAL BREEZE
In last week’s Breeze, one of Cape Coral’s councilmen was defending why the Australian pine trees needed to be cut down. He said they were an invasive species of trees. This may be true, but these trees were planted around 60 years ago and are around 60 feet tall. There must be about 100 of them in Jaycee Park and they provide great shade to the people who visit the park. After 60 years in this park, I would say they are not invasive, but are now indigenous to the area.
The councilman said that “these trees erode coastlines and choke out other native vegetation that provide critical wildlife habitat.” As for eroding coastlines, Jaycee Park is on the Caloosahatchee River and its entire “coastline” is protected by a band of riprap (rocks) that protect the shore from wave action, not from the “invasive” trees. I don’t know if these trees choke out other native vegetation, but what critical wildlife does he want to protect? Squirrels? There are a ton of them there.
He also goes on to say that “its wind-driven seeds will only cause more invasive trees to grow and provide continued environmental damage.” Do these seeds go everywhere and are a nuisance and cause environmental damage? I doubt this very much. I haven’t seen any Australian pine saplings sprouting up all over Cape Coral. What environmental damage? I don’t get it.
This city council wants to spend $12 million of our money to redevelop Jaycee Park by removing these Australian pines, and adding a bandshell, a bar, food trucks, two piers and indigenous trees. The locals don’t want this redevelopment, yet the city council is moving forward with it. It can’t be because of the “invasive” pines. Is there an ulterior motive behind this?
On the same page as the councilman’s guest commentary, The Breeze posted the results of the latest weekly poll. The question was “Do you use city parks or take part in programs?” The answer to this non-scientific poll was 76.5% of those responding to the question said “No”. If that is the case, why redevelop Jaycee Park? Leave it as is. Let the 23.5% of the people enjoy the park and walk our dogs there.
The only maintenance needed at Jaycee Park is to remove the scrub trees and bushes that have grown out of the riprap area along the river. These scrub trees and bushes are not Australian pines either! How about that!
Ken Kendrick, Citizen of Cape Coral