The Pines at Fort Zach, Key West

2006-06-23T10:20:00.000-05:00

Greetings! We've moved to:

fortzach.com

Click on the new name - you'll hop right over!!!

Sorry for the change - it couldn't be helped.

See you in a nano-second!
Sally
Fortzach.com webmistress

Theisen's Letter to Editor

2006-06-01T15:04:00.000-05:00

E-mail State Rep with Pines Concerns

Dear Editor:

"Florida State Park National Gold Medal Winner. Voted America's Best."

"America's Only Two-Time Winner."

These striking signs greet you as you cross the threshold into our own Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. Perfection has been achieved. Now the park manager wants to remove the only shade trees from our park. Let's remove the person who thinks he's better than perfect. E-mail your honorable state Representative Ken Sorensen and tell him of your concerns: ken.sorensen@myfloridahouse.gov.

Tom Theisen
Key West

Published Key West Citizen 6/1/06

Citizen's Voice 6/1/06

2006-06-01T15:03:00.000-05:00

"I'm one of the pine nuts, and proud of it."

Published Key West Citizen 6/1/06

Citizen's Voice 5/28/06

2006-05-28T16:45:00.000-05:00

"Is there anything we could actually do to prevent the debacle of having all those trees cut down at Fort Zachary Taylor? Could we be having a mailing campaign, letter writing campaign, telephone campaign, and who would we be writing to? It's a State Park so where's the ultimate authority for it?"

Published Key West Citizen 5/28/06

Save Our Pines to Editor

2006-05-21T17:01:00.000-05:00

Park Service should honor pines agreement

Dear Editor,

Ninety plus trees have been tagged along the beach line at Fort Taylor destined for removal. This area is where many people spend their time at the beach since it is protected from the sun yet close enough to the water to supervise children.

More than six months ago, the Park Service expressed the desire to create a coastal berm here. We were told that an erosion study would be made to evaluate the condition of the beach. Consequently, we certainly expected to be privy to this study prior to any specific action so that our experts could review the erosion plan and suggest options to insure that mature pines are not threatened.

On April 26 at the State sponsored workshop for Fort Taylor, we specifically asked for a status on the erosion study and were told by officials that it had not been completed. So, it was more than shocking to see these rapid steps taken toward a massive tree removal just five days later. Why were we not informed of the Park's intention to remove the trees then? After all, the purpose of the April 26th meeting was to discuss the future park management plan.

As a solution for the erosion, we had envisioned shoring up the small cliff with a Caribbean/tropical style wall and simple nautical rope fence, with steps down to the beach, that would be filled on the tree side once it is built. In a park that is basically all one level, the cliff has always been considered charming, a nice contrast to the already graded part of the beach which is further east of this area.

Our desire is for the existing pines on fill to remain and be allowed to replenish in a "controlled" manner. If these trees are removed it will reduce the size of the all important shaded area next to the beach (there have been no trees on the beach itself for years and therefore pose no problems for turtle nesting). The shade is the reason many of us go to this beach rather than Smathers or Higgs Beaches. When you go to the park now, it is painfully apparent that protection from the damaging rays of the sun has already diminished considerably.

These pines are known to help control erosion and historically have always been a navigational tool. A past park proposal showed plans for seven shelters, one 20' x 30' x 36' shelter was in this area. We do not know if this will be proposed in the new plan as a shade replacement.

In 2004, The Park Service made a commitment to leave the mature Australian pines in a zone within the picnic area, unless they posed a safety hazard or were damaged by storms. We call on the Park Service to continue to honor their commitment and call off the removal of these trees, at least until we can sit together and examine options that better suit the needs of Key Westers.

Helen Harrison
Save Our Pines

Published Key West Citizen 5/21/06

Prudence writes in!

2006-05-21T16:19:00.000-05:00

Australian pines provide shade

I am in sixth grade and go to Fort Zach a lot. The Australian pines give everybody shade when they don't want to sit in the hot sun. I think that it would be wrong to take away something that almost everybody appreciates. Please don't cut down the pine trees!

Prudence Whalen
Key West

Published Key West Citizen 5/21/06

Citizen's Voice 5/21/06

2006-05-21T15:12:00.000-05:00

Great editorial on Friday. We, along with most people who love Fort Zack, cannot imagine it without the beautiful pines. When the park did such a great job of building the islands to capture the natural sand several years ago, we do not remember them cutting down any great number of pines. Why now?

Published Key West Citizen 5/21/06

Citizen Editorial

2006-05-20T16:18:00.000-05:00

Pining over the prospect of a changing landscape

It takes a sense of humor — or maybe just a cockeyed sense of irony — to fully appreciate the squabbles we get ourselves into trying to cope with our neighbors north of the 18-Mile Stretch and our governing elites even further north in Tallahassee.

Sometimes you just can't make up, in your wildest imaginings, the impassioned feuds that erupt over issues that are so, shall we say "exotic."

Currently at issue are the Australian pine trees our pioneering settlers had the audacity (or was it good sense?) to plant near the beach at Fort Zachary Taylor many, many years ago. Who knew this was a bad idea way back then?

Anyhow, these pines remain today (at least most of them do) providing welcome shade for picnics and, also, serve as ultraviolet filters for sunbathers. Such is the innocent nature of our live-and-let-live culture here in Key West.

But a couple of years ago, our naïve ignorance was revealed when the state Department of Parks, presumably at the urging of expert advisors, issued a forceful mandate: No more exotics (meaning non-native trees or plants) will henceforth be tolerated. They must be scheduled for removal in timely fashion and replaced by native species.

Thus the feud began.

The Citizen has diligently reported the arguments pro and con and we won't rehash them again — except to observe that however inappropriate the Australian Pines may be according to state policy, it is clearly evident they have accommodated themselves nicely to this windswept green space at the entrance to our harbor. Folks here love them for the benefits they provide as well as the way they look and even the way they sound when the wind is blowing.

Some months ago, the status of these trees appeared to have been settled when Save Our Pines, a local volunteer group, and the park service reached a mutually agreeable compromise. The existing mature pines will be preserved in a zone within the picnic area unless, or until, they pose a safety hazard or storm damage requires their removal. There's a big loop hole, though. The long-term future of the trees remains threatened because this does not allow for any new growth.

The compromise did not hold for long. As it happens, a long overdue project to replenish and stabilize the beach was authorized and, to facilitate this work, 74 of the existing 847 pines were immediately painted and tagged for removal. Save Our Pines once again resisted. As a result, park management wisely declared a moratorium to await completion and assessment of an erosion study. That's where matters stand today, still unresolved but with some possibility of a further compromise.

Frankly, the editors responsible for this page are not expert arborists. Even so, we are on safe ground in asserting that the new Florida beyond the 18-Mile Stretch is often deaf, dumb and blind to the historic Florida as represented by Key West. Here, our sensibilities are instinctively protective of the unique, irreplaceable, valuable and picturesque assets this tiny island possesses. This is a special sense of stewardship that is deserving of respect and community support. And, to our way of thinking, it legitimately extends to a stand of old pines in a small public park near an old fortress that once guarded a harbor that sustained our commerce and insured our food, fuel and just about everything else required for civilized life hereabouts.

Key West is not plastic, not neon, not Disney World. We don't always readily embrace the latest dictates of scientists whose faddish ideas too often determine government policies. Moreover, we definitely don't want a park so over endowed with food, beverage, generic looking hospitality structures and other amenities that mimic the look of every other park in Florida. In short, we've been here a long time, thank you very much, and we don't need government guidance on when to chop down trees that have also been here a long, long time.

Is it implausible to hope that the state's civil engineers can figure out how to replenish a beach without destroying trees the community would prefer to keep, just for old time's sake?

— The Citizen
Published Key West Citizen 5/19/06

Murtha's Letter to the Editor

2006-05-19T16:16:00.000-05:00

Tree removal will render park sterile

Can some one tell me why on earth the powers that be at Fort Taylor prefer cement and lack of shade to the pines? If they cut down those trees, they'll be removing one of the most pleasant aspects of going there. I, for one, will find it hard to figure out why I would want to if there is no shade other than the cement replacements I hear they've planned. Eighty three trees, albeit non-indigenous, cut out of that beach will render it a sterile, hot and an unpleasant place to visit. ...

Tom Murtha
Key West

Published Key West Citizen 5/19/06

Rose's Letter to the Editor

2006-05-18T16:15:00.000-05:00

Removing park pines diminishes appeal

Hi, my name is Rose and I'm 9 years old. I had my first birthday party at Fort Taylor and I still go there a lot. But the other day I heard that they're going to cut down about 80 pine trees in Fort Taylor and now I'm starting to not want to go there anymore. So can you just think about not cutting the pine trees down. Please!

Rose Murtha
Key West

Published Key West Citizen 5/18/06

Citizen's Voice 5/18/06

2006-05-18T16:13:00.000-05:00

"I just wanted to say how sad I am with what they're doing to Fort Zachary Taylor. It's unbelievable how sad that park looks when just a few years ago there was a beautiful forest of trees. Now they want to grade the sand? Why don't they leave it alone? It's a state park. If tourists need sandy beaches and don't want rocks, let them go to Smathers Beach. Leave the state park in its natural condition and stop trying to turn it into another groomed beach with chairs and umbrellas for tourists."

Published Key West Citizen 5/18/06

Hatch's Letter to Editor

2006-05-16T16:12:00.000-05:00

More benefit than harm derived from pines in park

It is not because of the sound of the wind blowing through the trees that I want to save the Australian Pines at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park — though it is a soothing sound. It is because these trees protect us from the harsh Florida sun and allow us to enjoy the beach, our only beach in Key West with natural shade. The pagodas in the plans are not quite the same as shade trees.

If it is the state's goal of making this park more of a money-making park, through more and bigger concessions and wedding pavilions, then perhaps a beach with little shade will work. However, without the pines, most folks I know say they will visit the beach far less often.

Park officials have repeatedly said they would not remove these trees unless they posed a safety hazard. Just this week in The Citizen, Florida Parks Director Mike Bullock wrote, "We agreed to allow the Australian pines in the picnic area to remain until they die naturally, become a safety hazard or must be removed due to damage from storms."

Several days later, 72 trees in the picnic area were marked to be bulldozed.

The safety hazard here is the sun, and removal of the pines in the name of clearing this park of non-native invasive species is absurd. The non-native invasive species here is man. These trees should be nurtured in their non-native, man-filled coral corner of Key West where native trees do not grow. The pricey park experiments with natives have generally failed along the beach, and the sea grapes still alive only provide shade for short dogs. This is not Invasion of the Australian Pine Body Snatchers here. These trees are cheaply and easily controlled in the picnic area.

An invitation is extended to arborists, botanists and plant lovers rightly concerned about invasive plants in Florida to pass an afternoon picnicking at this unique park during which time I think they will see the benefits of letting these trees live in this little seaside spot.

A Winnebago Indian wise saying goes, "Holy Mother earth, the trees and all nature, are witnesses of your thoughts and deeds."

The state and the park goers are fortunate to have these shade trees here where little else will live. Killing them will ruin this park.

Richard Hatch
Key West

Published Key West Citizen 5/16/06

Post 'n Pix from Art Kara

2006-05-15T16:10:00.000-05:00

Great letter to ed. Sal!

Here's pics from my daughter Mary Claire's 5th birthday party held by her request at Ft. Zach last January. Sorry, they're a bit overexposed, but so much of the canopy is gone and look, new white marl underfoot!

We don't go there anymore--it's too sad! The park service is bent on turning it into a generic tourist beach. Having attended both the dog and pony shows "required by their Plan," your site is the best hope...a Ft. Zach in the mind, pines online.

My best, Art Kara

Photos online at Tiny Pic Here and Here.

Sally's Letter to the Editor

2006-05-14T16:08:00.000-05:00

Web site preserves memories of pines

The removal of the pines at Fort Zachary Taylor is very, very sad. As a 30-year resident of Key West, my family and I have thoroughly enjoyed our pines, loved sitting in the picnic area, looking up at the sky through the distant treetops. Will the new trees provide that gorgeous dappling, dry floor, essential year-round shade needed to enjoy the park?

I Googled for a Web site about the pines and, finding none, started a blog: http://fortzach.blogspot.com. If you have photos, stories, links to other sites — anything Fort Zach, please share it. At the very least, in 20 years, when the sea grape leaves are mosquito habitats, the gumbo limbo and mahogany are finally providing shade for part of the year, the ground matted with wet mushy leaves and scorpions, we can look back and say "This is what we had." Or, my personal favorite, "I told you so."

Sally O'Boyle
Key West

Published Key West Citizen 5/14/06

Welcome!

2006-05-06T16:22:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the blog for Save Our Pines, a non-profit organization whose mission is to preserve and maintain the Australian Pine canopy at historic Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. Unless current state plans are changed, these cherished trees and the shade they provide are doomed to extinction.

This site was created as a way to provide up-to-date news, photos and an ongoing history of the park and its pines. Links are here to everything Fort Zach we could find. You must know of others and have photos - please share them!

Email your links to sites about the park and they will be posted under Fort Zach Links. You can write a post by either writing a comment*, or email your post to us, and it will appear on the site asap (within a day certainly).

Photos are especially needed!!! You can email the photos (email first so we can decide the best way to get them here in case you have gobs). Or email a link to your photo set on flickr or yahoo or kodak or shutterfly or where ever you have them. They will be posted asap!

By the way, this blog is solely for pro-pine enjoyment. Anti-pine arguments may or may not be posted depending on how enjoyable they are! Just letting you know. In case there was any doubt.

We will miss the pines - we miss a lot of them already. Please help save the pines!

*To write a comment, click the "Comments" link at the bottom of this post. If you don't have a blogger account, you can post as Anonymous. Please sign it, though, so we know who you are. Thank you!

Fort Zach holds planning session

2006-04-26T16:06:00.000-05:00

Save Our Pines among groups with interest

Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park in Key West has long been a paradise within a paradise for locals, and officials says they want to keep it that way.

In hopes of updating the park's management plan, which was last revamped in 1999, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Parks and Recreation will host a public workshop tonight to garner comments and suggestions regarding the best future strategies for Fort Zachary Taylor, which is on Southard Street at Truman Annex.

“We're reviewing the current plan.... We want to see what we've accomplished,” park Manager Mark Knapke said.

“The purpose of this meeting is to solicit public input to update the unit management plan,” said Matt Mitchell, Division of Recreation and Parks spokesman. “We want to get to know what the public has in mind” for the park.

Past such inquiries and new management directions have caused citizens to voice concern over what many call the commercialization of the park and the potential loss of the historic Australian pines.

The park has concessions, kayak rentals and has been used for weddings. It also hosts festivals such as a Civil War re-enactment.

The Save Our Pines organization has requested that its supporters show up at the meeting so they have a voice in what goes into the new management plan.

Previously, the group has fought long and hard against the removal of the pines. Their current plan is to wait and see what transpires at tonight's meeting before jumping to conclusions or coming before officials with an agenda.

“If the folks attending the meeting would like to discuss [the trees or the commercialization], that's exactly like what we want to talk about,” Mitchell said.

Officials such as Knapke, park staff, planners and the Florida parks District 5 bureau chief are expected to be at tonight's session. Following the meeting, state officials will take all comments into consideration as they put together a first draft of the plan. At that point, a yet-to-be-named advisory committee will be appointed for overview before the final plan comes back before the public in workshop form once again.

Mitchell said the process is long but worth the time and effort, considering Florida was recently named the “Nation's Best State Park Service” by the National Recreation and Parks Association.

“We take a lot of pride in visitors and ... the preservation of Florida,” he said. And “this park is very important and beloved.”

The meeting is to be held tonight at the Harvey Government Center in Key West at 7 p.m. For more information call 292-6713.

By Christine Braden
Published Keynoter 4/26/06

Visitors' Letter to Keynoter

2006-04-11T16:04:00.000-05:00

Fort Zach's pines provide benefits

We wish to comment on the Australian pines at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park's beach in Key West.

Living in Broward County or visiting, we had the experience of seeing many Australian pine trees removed from John Lloyd State Park, and precious shade and recreation space appear to be lost. Unsightly views of container elevators and cranes in the shipping lanes are now exposed.

We had always enjoyed our morning and evening walks, and we now find the natural beauty of our state beach compromised by the drastic cutting back of the Australian pines. A particular area where the Australian pines were removed was a wonderful family picnic spot, a cool respite from the hot sun, a place to write, to dream or to meditate. The floor under the trees was always covered with soft pine needles, a relief to the burning sands, and beautiful to behold.

In the case of Key West, our fear is that once these tall graceful trees are gone, there will be further beach erosion, and trees planted in their stead will not be as hardy, provide shelter from the winds or give as much shade. Please ask the Florida Park Service to reconsider its park plan.

It would be a travesty to lose these tall Australian pines just because they are not native to Florida. Fort Taylor State Park would then suffer the same fate as John Lloyd State Park, which is no longer the beach it once was. Residents and frequent visitors still grieve the loss.

Allcyn Colotelo, Delray Beach
Aile Shebar, James and Bat Sheva Cornelison, Raven Cohan, Gayle Stolove, Hollywood

Published Keynoter 4/11/06

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2001-01-01T17:03:00.000-05:00