CITY’S CANOPY CELEBRATED,
INCREASED, CARESSED
June 23, 2021
June 23, 2021
With Cedar Key’s real estate market bustling, buildings being erected, greenspaces diminishing, water-needful lawns encroaching, and trees being cut down, the island’s canopy is being encroached upon mightily.
AHHHH, THE CANOPY
Canopy, as surely you know, provides innumerable advantages for people and the planet. As multiple internet experts aver:
Canopy, as surely you know, provides innumerable advantages for people and the planet. As multiple internet experts aver:
Trees increase property values. ...
Trees clean the air. ...
Trees slow water runoff. ...
Trees prevent soil erosion. ...
Trees help buffer noise pollution. ...
Trees cool our homes, streets, and cities. ...
Trees can save you money on energy costs. ...
Trees are beautiful.
Trees clean the air. ...
Trees slow water runoff. ...
Trees prevent soil erosion. ...
Trees help buffer noise pollution. ...
Trees cool our homes, streets, and cities. ...
Trees can save you money on energy costs. ...
Trees are beautiful.
MICHAEL BABBITT AND NELLIE ESHLEMAN
PRE-PLANNING
Several weeks ago, the surveying team of Colsons, Hands, and Offerles set out to locate the perfect places for the thirteen trees. They marked each location spot with a painted “x” and drove a short polyvinyl chloride, PVC, pipe in place to mark the spot.
Several weeks ago, the surveying team of Colsons, Hands, and Offerles set out to locate the perfect places for the thirteen trees. They marked each location spot with a painted “x” and drove a short polyvinyl chloride, PVC, pipe in place to mark the spot.
Organizing the event were Sue and Russ Colson who spent hours packaging individual polymer and fertilizer into plastic bags, a set for each new tree.
Cedar Key-based author / playwright Michael Bobbitt did much of the hard work of extricating the oaks and crepes from their pots and shoveling loads of soil.
Part-time resident Nellie Eshleman contributed her foresting expertise by explaining the best way to prepare the hole with fertilizer and water-holding polymer and how to properly place the trees.
JOE HAND AND NELLIE ESHLEMAN PLANT AN OAK TREE
Bunny Hand and Anne Miller quickly became the project’s Energizer Bunnies who, with Lois Benninghoff’s moral support, planted six or seven trees doublehandedly.
Commissioner Nancy Sera, on her way about town in her golf cart, stopped her errands and joined the team, watering, fertilizing, and more.
Critical to the operation was Joe Hand’s tree delivery and, assisted by Gabe Lauer, brick and mulch delivery to the planting sites.
DOLLARS?
Asked how the project was paid for, Colson immediately and energetically responded. In the last five years, the City of Cedar Key established its Tree Fund. Fees are collected from Tree Removal Permits. Those dollars pay for Heritage Tree maintenance and for new trees to reestablish the diminishing canopy in Cedar Key.
Asked how the project was paid for, Colson immediately and energetically responded. In the last five years, the City of Cedar Key established its Tree Fund. Fees are collected from Tree Removal Permits. Those dollars pay for Heritage Tree maintenance and for new trees to reestablish the diminishing canopy in Cedar Key.
Colson’s workers, excluding the Public Works Department, are all unpaid volunteers. These trees and the others recently planted in the Cedar Key Cemetery and Cemetery Point Park were purchased at reduced prices from Cedar Key resident James Fleming’s Tropic Traditions Wholesale Nursery.
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