Retirees now can replant after canker

SUN CITY CENTER -- Two years ago, when the state came for their fruit trees, the senior citizens of this retirement community south of Tampa felt like someone had taken away an old friend.

Retirees screamed as inspectors came with torches to destroy trees infected with citrus canker. A few women tried to tie themselves to trees. Thom Muir's wife, Charlotte, put a cross in her lawn where her orange and grapefruit trees had stood.

"It was a horrible, horrible thing," said Thom Muir, a 75-year-old retiree. "We lost our friends."

Now, the retirees who lost trees that define Florida living will get a chance to grow them back.

The state Agriculture Department on Monday lifted a two-year ban on growing new citrus trees in a 20-square-mile area centered on Sun City Center. The state had imposed the ban to stop the spread of the canker, a bacteria that causes trees to lose fruit prematurely.

Muir said a neighbor called him Monday after hearing the news.

"At long last, I will be able to send fruit up North again," he told Muir. "I will be a hero again."

In January 2000, state officials destroyed 2,154 trees exposed to canker around Sun City Center and prohibited residents from growing new trees until the canker was gone.

The extermination was part of the state's campaign to eradicate canker, which threatened Florida's $8.5-billion citrus industry.

In Sun City Center, inspectors found canker, which looks like a scar, on the branches of orange and grapefruit trees. Because canker spreads, inspectors destroyed all trees within 1,900 feet of the sick trees.

In South Florida, residents sued to stop the destruction. Those lawsuits wasted money and delayed a fast response to the disease, Gov. Jeb Bush said at a luncheon speech at the Florida State Fair on Monday.

"Citizens in Hillsborough understand (they need) to follow what science dictates," Bush said.

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