Restoration planting at Coral Pointe canal front
A group of residents are coming together to help restore land along Coral Pointe Canal in the Four Mile Cove area.
The restoration group will perform its first planting event this Saturday from 8 a.m. until the work is complete. The volunteers will be planting 15 trees, 10 shrubs, and 15 or so grasses.
Back in 2019, work in the area done by the city resulted in a Florida Department of Environmental Protection citation for poor environmental practices following a complaint inspection in early August of that year.
Members of the group have been dissatisfied with the work performed thus far by the city
“As a community, we’ve come together and have taken an interest in ensuring that the property is restored somewhat to what it should be and should have been,” said one of the leaders of the restoration group, Joe Cruz. “You could say finishing the job that the city never did.”
The city said a maintenance effort at the canal was done to remove invasive plants from the aforementioned canal — including mangroves, which are protected by the FDEP.
The letter from FDEP to the city stated that “violations of Florida Statues or administrative rules may result in liability for damages and restoration, and the judicial imposition of civil penalties.”
City officials sent a letter to then-city manager John Szerlag detailing the city’s work and what the next steps are to be taken.
“The nearby Little Canal was recently trimmed under a DEP mangrove trimming permit by hand from a barge. However, with the extensive overgrowth along the Coral Pointe Canal, hand trimming would have been extremely labor intensive and long in duration. As such, a determination by staff was made to clean the canal bank of exotics using mechanical means. The existing shoreline vegetation was extensively covered with exotic vegetation, with minimal mangroves intertwined,” the letter stated.
Once FDEP visited the site, the agency put a stop work order on the canal maintenance and requested a restoration plan to be submitted by the city for review before any work is to resume.
“The city told us they would restore it and make it better than it was,” Cruz said. “And none of that really happened.”
The land in questions was actually purchased by Lee County as part of the 20/20 Conservation program, though the city is responsible for the restoration per the DEP.
Cruz, unhappy with what he says is the lack of progress in the area, contacted Lee County Parks and Recreation and, with their blessing, was given the green light to start planting in the area.
“The past couple of months we’ve been removing big tree limbs and trunks, and when we’ve had enough of a pile, (the county) has come in and chipped it away and used it as mulch,” Cruz said. “But it’s basically us driving it. The big issue is that as long as the city is under the obligation of the restoration which was a three-year plan the city agreed to with DEP, which is part of the (20/20) sale, the county has said they want to wait until they are absolved of that responsibility.”
County spokesperson Betsy Clayton told The Breeze in an email, “The county will not take over the property until the Florida Department of Environmental Protection signs off on it.”
Cruz said he and his volunteer group are worried that the area is going to go back to square one with invasive plants growing.
“This can’t stay the way it is,” he said.
In the 2019 letter, FDEP stated that its personnel noted the following during their inspection:
n Unauthorized dredge and fill impacts to wetlands
n Unauthorized mangrove alteration
n Failure to install and utilize appropriate Best Management Practices during in-water construction
n Failure to obtain coverage under a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Construction Generic Permit for construction activities that disturb one or more acres of land.
Some work was performed by the city in May of 2020. Their duties to FDEP involved mobilizing equipment to the project site, the removal of invasive species (Australian pines), bank reshaping, berm building, hydroseeding and mangrove planting.
When asked what the current status of the restoration, what work has been performed, the last time work was performed, or a response to criticism that the city has not performed adequately, city spokesperson Kaitlyn Pearson told The Breeze in an email: “The city is still fulfilling our engagement with the State and the County.”
Cruz, who lives close by to the site and visits often, said that nearly three years after the citation, it’s evident there’s still work to be done. In July of 2020, the group of volunteers planted mangroves in the area in partnership with Keep Lee County Beautiful.
“We’re just going to wait until the plan expires and we’ll be able to do more,” he said. “There’s are a couple of areas already with signs of erosion on the berm. The lack of action is frustrating.”
The planting will take place on the west end of Coral Pointe Canal, working along the northern edge.
“We’ll start there and see how far we can get,” Cruz said, noting the costs are coming out of the volunteer’s pockets. “This is just the start. We know we’ll have more to do.”
Cruz also credited Terry Sanders, owner of Hickory hammock Native Tree Farm in Fort Myers, for providing the plants at a discounted rate.
Those interested in joining the restoration group or volunteering their time can email Cruz at cppjjcc@gmail.com.
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To reach CJ HADDAD, please email cjhaddad@breezenewspapers.com