Palm Trees Belong in South Florida

There has been something truly irritating me for about eighteen months now. During post hurricane recovery it has become fashionable to replace our majestic oaks of northwest Florida with the palm trees of south Florida. I, for one, don't like the look. Northwest Florida is not the Florida of picture postcard Florida. NW Florida is more typical of the Old South. Palm trees are not native to this area. What is native is the majestic oaks covered in hanging moss more typical of the old southern plantations.

Now that everyone in NW Florida is "remodeling" after Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis, the trend is to replace those majestic oaks with palm trees. It makes me want to scream "We are not South Florida!" The palms have their place here, perhaps out on the beaches. But when you come across the 3 Mile Bridge onto the mainland, the oaks should continue to stand where they naturally grew.

Now everywhere you look, oaks are being torn down and replaced with palms. The Mall, the hospital, and now even WalMart has replaced the oaks and crepe myrtles with palms. The area I live in is Myrtle Grove. It is so named for all the crepe myrtles that grow naturally in the area. They turn the area into a sea of pink, white, red and fuschia in the spring with their beautiful blooms. When our neighborhood WalMart was built, crepe myrtles decorated the parking lot, providing beautiful blooms and shade for parking. No longer is this so, this spring WM replaced perfectly good crepe myrtles with what else? Palm Trees.

The area where I work is known as Pine Forest. Why? It was so named for the Native longleaf pine trees that grow naturally in this region. We were built around the mills and forests that harvested this lumber to build the south. Pine Trees, Oak Trees and Crepe Myrtles. They belong in NW Florida.

Please don't get me wrong. I love to look at the palms when I visit South Florida. They are majestic with their fronds waving in the sea breeze. But they belong in South Florida, where they grow naturally! The palms invoke the idea of what the rest of the world thinks all of Florida is, a tropical vacationland. NW Florida has many things to offer vacationers. I just don't think Palm trees should be one of them.

Just my wonderings,
:J