Indian River County growers 'may have to live with' canker

County commissioners call meeting with St. Lucie County counterparts and state officials to get help for growers

By HENRY A. STEPHENS
henry.stephens@scripps.com
December 18, 2005

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — County commissioners are calling on Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson and other citrus experts to help figure out how to keep agriculture alive as officials destroy thousands of acres of citrus in the war on canker.

"We need to address this," County Commissioner Sandra Bowden, wife of citrus grower Robert Bowden, told her colleagues last week. "One (canker-infested) tree means they take out 260 acres. Why, if this isn't working, are we still going down that road?"

Commissioners agreed to schedule a joint meeting with the St. Lucie County Commission and have Bronson there with other state citrus experts to discuss such matters as tax incentives for growers to remain in agriculture and financial assistance to help citrus growers switch to other crops.

"We may very well be beyond eradication," Commissioner Wesley Davis said. "We may have to live with it."

The Legislature last year passed a new law requiring the removal and destruction of trees found with canker, plus all other citrus trees within a 1,900-foot radius of the diseased tree, said Bob Adair, chairman of the county Agriculture Advisory Committee.

But the 1,900-foot rule has been in effect since 1999, when the state Division of Plant Industry expanded the previous 125-foot radius, he said. The larger area equates to about 262 acres.

State and federal authorities require citrus trees in the radius to be uprooted, piled and burned, Adair said. The cleared land must then be tilled to at least 10 inches deep to kill the roots and prevent sprouting and reinfection. And no citrus is to be planted for two years.

But with six years of experience, the current method isn't working, say Adair and Mike Ziegler, a Melbourne-based citrus consultant.

"A year ago, there was no canker infestation here," Ziegler told commissioners Tuesday. "But now St. Lucie County is covered and it's coming into Indian River County."

Adair and Ziegler cited statistics showing canker infecting or otherwise affecting 3 percent of Indian River County's 47,539 acres of citrus groves.

While that might not seem like much, they said, 35 percent of St. Lucie County's 82,987 acres, some of it right over the county line, already are infected or affected.

The state has spent $50 million a year since 1995 to fight canker, he added — one-tenth of the county's annual economic value from citrus.

While canker directly ravages the crops, Adair said, the fight against it is hurting the environment — 262 acres at a time.

The aggressive tilling exposes cleared grove land to erosion by stormwater, which robs the land of its topsoil and sends more silt and sediment into the Indian River Lagoon, he said.

And as topsoil and drainage declines, he said, the grower will be faced with few choices but to sell the land for development.

But in fact, Ziegler said, canker isn't a killer. It mars the outside of the fruits and leaves, but doesn't hurt the fruit inside.

"The inside is perfectly fine, but the outside has a spot," he said. "A biological disorder has now become a political disease."

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