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State steps up citrus canker efforts

The Department of Agriculture will remove 600 acres of infected trees a day to prevent the infection's spread by the next big storm.

FORT PIERCE - The state Department of Agriculture is launching a major assault on citrus canker in Central Florida, trying to remove diseased trees before a tropical storm or hurricane can spread the infection in this commercial-growing area.

The department wants to bulldoze and burn more than 22,000 acres of tainted trees before the next storm hits. Instead of burning 30 acres a day, the agency will take out 600 acres of trees a day, said Craig Meyer, deputy agriculture commissioner.

"We're talking about a massive step-up of our eradication efforts," Meyer said.

The agency is hiring more inspectors and has moved 60 residential canker inspectors from South Florida into residential and commercial areas that have recently been infected in Central and southwestern Florida, officials said.

Canker, harmless to humans but one of the most destructive disease threats to Florida's $9-billion citrus industry, has been in Florida for about a decade.

The state has destroyed about 2.5-million trees in commercial groves and 650,000 trees in residential areas to get rid of it.

But the infection spread last year, in part because of wind-driven rain from storms. After the three hurricanes that hit South and Central Florida last year, officials said, the bacteria spread into the heart of the state's prime grapefruit- and orange-shipping area.

State Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson said officials are mounting the offensive to counter the intensified movement of the disease, and they hope to rid the prime commercial citrus areas of it entirely.

"If we don't have a catastrophic storm season, we can eradicate it," Bronson said.

The moving of citrus trees is to blame as well. When trees from infected areas in Miami-Dade and Broward counties are sold and moved north, the disease can spread.

Growers in Indian River County and other places north of where canker had been a problem started reporting in January that their groves were being infected. The disease can affect all citrus varieties, including grapefruit, oranges and tangerines.

"They are removing trees as fast as they can, but it has not been fast enough," said Vero Beach grower Dan Richey, co-chairman of the state's Citrus Canker Technical Advisory Task Force. "We need to help them find answers to remove them more quickly."

Since Jan. 1, inspectors have found canker outbreaks in 111 sites in commercial groves statewide.

Infected trees develop small brown lesions on leaves, stems and fruit. It eventually reduces tree productivity.

Because of the commercial outbreak, the department received $10-million more from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in May and has asked for $12-million more to help with the effort. The department will ask for $10-million more from a special state fund, Meyer said.

[Last modified August 2, 2005, 02:45:17]