Guest Opinion: Sandy Ehlers
Australian pines gobble carbon, should be saved
Originally posted on October 24, 2007

"They're coming down!" So declared the Lee public works director (The News-Press, March 17) in regard to the lovely shade-giving Australian pines that have grown on the spoil islands leading out to Sanibel, the site of the new bridges. How ironic, at a time when global warming and greenhouse gases are receiving national attention, Lee County officials would decide to remove these valued carbon dioxide-consuming Australian pines.

NASA scientists first warned the U.S. Congress of the dangers of global warming in 1988. Nearly three decades later the dramatic evidence of global warming is incontrovertible, and with it the importance of mature, high canopy trees in averting disaster. Trees soak up the greenhouse gases we release into the atmosphere every time we board an airplane or turn the key in the ignition of our cars and boats. Kenyan environmentalist Dr. Wangari Maathai, who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, urged what might be the grandest plan yet to offset carbon emissions at a November 2006 international meeting on climate change. Maathai proposed that world citizens commit to planting one billion trees, which would absorb 250 million tons of the carbon dioxide presently warming our atmosphere.

Since Florida stands to lose much of its remarkable coast line (it's highest-taxed real estate) to rising waters and the increase in hurricane activity as a result of global warming, Florida legislators and other elected officials must accept the fact that we are past the tipping point of irreversible climate change. Unfortunately, most have not yet connected the continuing removal of mature Australian pines with the fact that smaller replacement-trees are unable to consume the vast amounts of greenhouse gases that mature Australian pines have consumed on a statewide basis for over 100 years. These beautiful pines not only consume greenhouse gases today but they are the underground storage bunkers for accumulated green house gases of past decades, their root systems serving as underground carbon sink holes. Every time we kill a tree we not only destroy its ability to consume future carbon dioxide emissions but we also release into the atmosphere the greenhouse gases that have been stored in its root systems

This is not the first time that Florida officials have courted ecological disaster in the name of science. The wanton destruction of mature high-canopy trees smacks of past environmental mistakes. Destroying millions of carbon-consuming Australians pines may eventually be seen as following in the misguided steps of the Army Corps of Engineers who straightened the Caloosahatchee River or the misdirected environmentalist who oversaw the draining of large parts of the Everglades. The Caloosahatchee debacle is proving to be a disaster in the buildup of algae and red tide in the Gulf of Mexico. As for the Everglades, the U.S. Congress has had to enact a $285 million program in hopes of repairing damage to that fragile eco-system.

In reconsidering their course of action, Lee County commissioners should pay serious attention to the wise decision made by the Sanibel City Council in the fall of 2006 regarding the retention of Australian pines on private property. Thousands of Sanibel's beautiful Australian pines were needlessly killed following Hurricane Charley when many of these signature pines could and should have been trimmed and saved. City, county, state and federal employees destroyed these carbon-consuming trees despite the fact that Sanibel city ordinances had been carefully put in place to protect and preserve many of the trees that were needlessly killed. A number of Sanibel citizens became irate and appealed to the city council to oppose this radical action. The council ruled unanimously in favor of the island's citizens and spared thousands of carbon-consuming Australian pines growing on private property.

Simply put, people love these trees. For 40 years the spoil island's Australian pines wispy, willowy branches have beckoned visitors to the special place that is Sanibel. It would be expensive to remove these valuable trees and even more expensive to replace them with palms and other vegetation arbitrarily branded "native," vegetation that past decades have proven does not withstand the spoil islands high winds and foot traffic as well as Australian pines.

Our elected officials should not destroy the very trees that have been one of the area's strong drawing cards for nearly 100 years and could be part of our ecological salvation in the century to come.

—Sandy McCartney Ehlers lives on Sanibel. She and her husband have been involved in global- warming issues since 1988. She is also involved with Friends of the Pines of Sanibel.

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