A class action lawsuit against the Florida Department of Agriculture first filed five years ago got underway in Lee County Circuit court Thursday. The suit seeks compensation for thousands of backyard citrus trees removed by the department in a failed effort to eradicate citrus canker.
The state began battling Citrus Canker in 1995 – considering it a huge threat to the Florida’s $9 billion citrus industry. It hoped to eradicate the disease by removing all infected trees and all others within a radius of 1900 feet in commercial groves and people’s yards. But Ron Hamel, executive director of the Gulf Citrus Growers Association, said the strategy was abandoned in 2006.
“We were making great progress with state’s canker eradication program up until the time the state was hit with several hurricanes back to back – it just got blown from one side of the state to the other,” he said.
In 2007, a court ruled homeowners whose trees were removed in the failed effort would be compensated at $55 dollars a tree – but many people never received that money – including thousands in Lee County who’ve signed onto the class action suit. About 33,000 trees were taken down. Meanwhile, Citrus Canker has become endemic in Florida’s commercial groves.
