Citrus Canker News (more...)

Canker hits 3 more trees in Orange - Three more citrus trees infected with canker have been discovered in Central Florida, and agriculture officials stepped up eradication efforts Thursday with a call for more inspectors. 7/12/02

Justices decline canker case
The state Supreme Court Thursday refused to hear a controversial canker-eradication suit -- dealing a blow to state agriculture officials' push to speed up the litigation to prevent further outbreaks of the canker they say jeopardizes Florida's lucrative citrus industry. 7/12/02

Appellate court agrees to move case to Florida Supreme Court
WEST PALM BEACH — The Fourth District Court of Appeals agreed on Tuesday that a dispute over a citrus canker law should skip the appellate level and be decided by the Florida Supreme Court. Agriculture officials asked the appellate court to move the case last week, saying it could get bogged down in a lengthy appeals process while the disease spreads. 7/10/02

Risk of citrus canker cuts to heart in Orange
 Risoleta Soares was devastated Tuesday when agriculture inspectors told her she should cut down the orange tree she and her grandson planted in her back yard 10 years ago. 7/10/02

Canker case to state high court
Florida's Supreme Court must still agree to accept the case, or it heads back to the district. 7/10/02
• Reimbursement hiked for cut citrus 7/10/02

Canker crews prepared to cut in east Orange - A team of state agriculture inspectors will begin knocking on more than 900 doors in east Orange County today in a search they think could mean life or death for Florida's orange and grapefruit groves. 7/9/02

Do the Walk and the Talk
The Florida Department of Agriculture has stumbled upon a novel approach to fighting citrus canker. The agency actually wants to talk face-to-face to residents and ask their permission to cut down exposed trees.7/7/02

Grant Review By High Court
From the point of view of the state of Florida and its beleaguered citrus industry, the timing couldn't have been worse. Broward County Circuit Judge J. Leonard Fleet's temporary injunction halting the state's citrus canker eradication program came just as the region was heading into the rainy season, which is now well under way. Rain and wind are the chief natural enemies of those fighting to stop the spread of the disease. 7/7/02

Orange County canker search widens
Citrus canker surveyors will move into a southern Orange County neighborhood Monday, scouring backyards as they resume their search for more signs of the tree disease near the heart of the Citrus Belt. 7/6/02

Citrus canker found in area
The disease found on grapefruit tree east of Orlando marks farthest north location. 7/4/02

Canker found near Orlando
Two canker-infested trees have been found outside Orlando near the heart of commercial citrus country, officials said Wednesday, as the state's canker eradication crews forayed back into Miami-Dade, search warrants in hand.7/4/02

Grant Review By High Court
From the point of view of the state of Florida and its beleaguered citrus industry, the timing couldn't have been worse. Broward County Circuit Judge J. Leonard Fleet's temporary injunction halting the state's citrus canker eradication program came just as the region was heading into the rainy season, which is now well under way. Rain and wind are the chief natural enemies of those fighting to stop the spread of the disease. 7/3/02

773 canker fines issued since '99
Lawn maintenance operators are the most frequent violators of canker rules 7/2/02

Stakes upped in fight for trees - State citrus canker eradication officials want to take their frustrating fight with a Broward County judge straight to the Florida Supreme Court, bypassing a court of appeals.-- The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services plans to ask the Fourth District Court of Appeal to relinquish its jurisdiction over a major anti-eradication lawsuit by citizens and governments in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.7/2/02

High court may hear canker case
Agriculture officials worry that the case will be bogged down in appeals process.7/1/02

State asks that canker case be moved to Supreme Court at once
WEST PALM BEACH -- Worried that a decision striking down a citrus canker law will get bogged down in a lengthy appeals process, agriculture officials prepared to ask an appellate court Monday to move the case directly to the Florida Supreme Court. 7/1/02

Cultivating a cure for canker
Although the bacteria have a head start, scientists are making inroads in the search for a way to vanquish the costly disease. 6/30/02

First canker found in Keys
Citrus canker has been discovered for the first time in the Florida Keys, making Monroe the 11th county in the state to get the tree disease since the latest outbreak began in 1995 in neighboring Miami-Dade. 6/27/02

Workers return to cut citrus -- MIAMI -- Workers will return to Miami-Dade County yards this week to cut down nearly 800 citrus trees infected with canker.- 
It will be the first widespread cutting since a judge found unconstitutional a new eradication law that gave canker crews access to private property to inspect and remove citrus trees.-- 
At the same time, state workers will be asking owners of as many as 1,700 properties in Palm Beach County and inside the city of Boca for permission to remove their citrus trees, said Liz Compton, state Agriculture Department spokeswoman. 6/27/02

Chain saws returning for canker
Armed with new search warrants, state citrus-canker eradication crews plan to return to 470 yards around Miami-Dade County on Thursday or Friday to cut down infected trees. 6/26/02

Canker crews to ask Palm Beach County residents for OK to cut trees - Florida Department of Agriculture officials, frustrated by their inability to use search warrants to hunt for citrus canker, have decided to ask Palm Beach County residents for permission to cut trees exposed to the disease.-- 
"Based on a recent court decision, the logistics involved in imposing restrictions make it cumbersome and difficult to go forward in an efficient and practical manner," said Mark Fagan, spokesman for the department. 6/26/02

Citrus disease threatens industry, homeowners' rights
BOCA RATON — While Gloria Drummond was at a morning exercise class, agriculture workers let themselves into her back yard and searched her plants and trees for canker, a disease threatening Florida's $9.1 billion citrus industry. Workers are chopping down healthy trees if they are too close to those infected or exposed to canker, a bacteria that spreads through the air, weakening trees and causing unsightly lesions on citrus fruit. 6/23/02

Why canker is winning canker fight
For those who think that the current controversy over citrus canker exemplifies a decades-old conspiracy between the industry and the state to drive away backyard competition, look at the record. 6/23/02

7,402 warrants OK’d for canker searches in north Broward 6/14

Broward judge lets stand warrants for citrus canker
WEST PALM BEACH — Homeowners fighting to keep agriculture workers away from their citrus trees lost one fight in a Broward County courtroom Thursday, but their efforts have forced delays in the state's program to destroy citrus canker. Mark Fagan, a spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture, said the ongoing legal wrangling and recent stormy weather are hurting the efforts to rid Florida of canker, which causes lesions on fruit and weakens citrus trees. 6/14

State's take on canker just a little bit cantankerous
Please understand that I started out in a friendly posture toward our state Department of Agriculture. I accepted, and still accept, the state's goal of eradicating the disease of citrus canker in Florida through the removal of infected trees. I wrote a column last week saying so. 6/14

Canker dispute bounces between 2 courts
Once again, the state's citrus canker eradication program is in limbo. Dueling court hearings Thursday in Broward County left canker crew workers and canker crew haters guessing about the fate of thousands of citrus trees in South Florida. 6/14

FIND A CANKER SOLUTION
The South Florida canker war has gone from lime groves and backyards to the Internet and the state Legislature. Now the fight is in the courts -- and with a vengeance. Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson said this week that the department will appeal a Broward judge's decision outlawing the canker-eradication program -- as well it should. 6/14

Florida's orange crop forecast up by 2 million boxes
LAKELAND — Florida's orange crop forecast has increased by 2 million boxes to 228 million, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday. If the forecast holds, this would be the third-largest crop on record. The 1997-98 crop, at 244 million boxes, holds the record.6/13/02

State to take canker hunt to southern Palm Beach
State citrus canker inspectors armed with search warrants plan to hunt for diseased trees in the Boca Raton Resort and Club area near the Palm Beach-Broward County line this week. 6/12

Florida's commercial citrus growers fear spread of canker
LOXAHATCHEE — As court challenges slow the state's efforts to eradicate citrus canker, commercial growers fear outbreaks of the costly disease in South Florida could spread to their groves. "We are right on the firing line," said Nat Roberts, head of Callery-Judge Grove in Loxahatchee, about 10 miles west of West Palm Beach. His company owns roughly 4,000 acres of oranges and other citrus fruit that are about 4,200 feet from a canker outbreak in a residential backyard. 6/11

State set to serve 3,000 canker warrants in Boca Raton
WEST PALM BEACH — Armed with more than 3,000 warrants, state agriculture workers will soon resume inspections for citrus canker in the yards of Boca Raton homeowners, chopping down trees that they say could spread the disease. Meanwhile, attorneys for the Department of Agriculture plan this week to appeal a Broward County judge's ruling that the canker eradication law is unconstitutional, spokeswoman Liz Compton said. The law allowed judges to issue countywide warrants for cutting down citrus trees within 1,900 feet of an infected tree. 6/11

Canker threat moving closer to commercial hubs of citrus
With canker eradication efforts faltering in South Florida, commercial citrus growers are getting more nervous as canker outbreaks hit closer to the heart of the state's fruit basket.6/10/02

Will canker wipe out groves?
By Michael Browning, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
If the disease isn't stopped here, it could destroy a $9.1 billion industry. 6/10/02

Editorial: Tree diseases
On the one hand, we have a tree disease mostly associated with the coastal area — lethal yellowing of palm trees. On the other we have a tree disease mostly associated with the inland area — canker in citrus trees. Canker spells doom for agribusiness because, while sparing the tree, it mars the fruit and makes it drop prematurely. Yellowing is more straightforward: it just kills the whole tree. 6/10/02

Canker search warrants issued
About 3,000 properties in Boca Raton have been targeted. Owners must give permission and can appeal. 6/10/02

Canker search warrants issued
About 3,000 properties in Boca Raton have been targeted. Owners must give permission and can appeal. 6/8/02

Lawyers want state to advise residents on canker rights - When the Department of Agriculture comes knocking at your door without a warrant, looking to inspect or cut down your citrus tree, you have the right to say no. 6/7/02

Agriculture plans appeal to canker ruling; state keeps cutting
TALLAHASSEE — The state will keep cutting down diseased trees while the courts resolve the legal dispute over the citrus canker eradication law, Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson said Wednesday. The department will continue removing all citrus trees, even exposed ones, within 1,900-feet of an infected tree if homeowners give their permission. Crews can continue to take out any infected trees by getting warrants if a property owner refuses access. The state's contracted tree cutters worked Wednesday only in Collier County, where they are getting homeowner permission to remove exposed trees.

State vows to pursue canker fight despite Broward judge's ruling - TALLAHASSEE · The state's campaign against citrus canker won't be stymied by a "misinformed" Broward County judge who struck down a new canker eradication law and slowed the destruction of healthy backyard citrus trees, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson said Wednesday.
Although inspectors now must obtain a search warrant for each property instead of using a single countywide warrant, Bronson said his department will continue to cut trees in South Florida and elsewhere where canker has been found even as it appeals Circuit Judge J. Leonard Fleet's ruling. 6/7/02

Out on a limb to save our trees
Should the state be able to come into your yard and destroy your citrus trees to fight the spread of citrus canker -- even if your tree appears healthy? 6/7/02

Judge: Florida citrus canker law is unconstitutional, statewide
FORT LAUDERDALE — Circuit Judge Leonard Fleet said Monday that his earlier ruling that the state's new citrus canker eradication law is unconstitutional applies throughout Florida. The law, passed earlier this year, required Florida agriculture agents to cut down all healthy citrus trees within 1,900 feet of any being chopped down because it is infected with canker. 6/4/02

Canker ruling applies to all of Florida
In a victory for homeowners and a major blow to the state citrus industry, a Broward judge ruled on Monday that the state's new citrus canker eradication law is illegal throughout the state. 6/4

Citrus cutting order extended
But citrus growers say the decision will allow canker to spread faster. 6/4

Local eradication crews stop cutting after judge rules
Chain saws fell silent in Golden Gate on Monday. The chopping and grinding stopped, and canker crews called it an early day, after Broward Circuit Judge Leonard Fleet said his earlier ruling that the state's new citrus canker eradication law is unconstitutional should apply statewide. 6/4

Scientists looking for better ways to fight citrus canker
LAKE ALFRED — Scientists working for better ways to detect and fight citrus canker have been given more money for their efforts. The federal government last year authorized $4.4 million over the next three years for canker-related research, said James Graham Jr., a professor of soil microbiology at the Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred and a leading researcher of the disease. 6/4

Citrus canker found in four trees north of Cocoa - COCOA — Federal and state agriculture workers surveyed a 5-square-mile area of Brevard County on Friday following the discovery of four citrus trees infected with canker. 6/2

Bush supports canker action - ORLANDO - Gov. Jeb Bush isn't happy that the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services will soon flood South Florida courts with tens of thousands of requests for search warrants in the fight against citrus canker, but the governor defended the decision Friday, saying Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson had no choice. 6/2

Which is more invasive, canker or the state?
Continuing their rampage to rid Florida citrus of unsightly canker, agricultural officials will seek up to 35,000 search warrants weekly to scour private property for infected trees.
The judges who must review these applications and the police officers who must serve the warrants have better ways to spend their time, as even the state acknowledges.
But this is what the war on canker has come to, and nothing will be spared.
No other special interest, not even the tourism sector, has the singular clout of Big Agriculture. No other industry could have persuaded government to deploy a taxpayer-funded army to wipe out millions of perfectly healthy orange, lime and grapefruit trees. 6/2

Agriculture official criticizes judge's ruling on canker law
MIAMI — Florida's efforts to eradicate citrus canker have been hampered by a judge's ruling that limited the state's ability to look for diseased trees, a state agriculture official said. The state will have to request tens of thousands of search warrants each week after a Broward County judge decided an anti-canker law was unconstitutional, Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson said Wednesday. 5/31

Golden Gate man considers drastic actions in fight to save citrus trees
Golden Gate resident Jerry Davidson waited anxiously Thursday to see if canker crews would return to his house and try to take his beloved citrus trees. But they never arrived. "I've got my chains and both my locks all set to go," said the 61-year-old, who retired from General Motors Corp. in Cincinnati about 15 years ago. After hearing a rumor that his trees would be taken at 2 p.m., Davidson prepared to chain himself to his trees to save them. 5/31

State canker inspectors to seek 35,000 search warrants weekly
TAMPA — State agriculture department attorneys will seek 35,000 warrants a week so inspectors can enter South Florida back yards to locate citrus trees infected with canker, Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson said Thursday. Bronson said the action, which will begin Friday or Monday, is necessary because Broward County Circuit Judge J. Leonard Fleet last week struck down a law allowing crews to cut down home owners' citrus trees under a single countywide search warrant. 5/31

State may fight canker with wave of warrants
State agriculture officials said Wednesday they must take a new tack in their controversial battle to eradicate citrus canker in Miami-Dade and Broward counties -- requesting up to 35,000 search warrants a week so inspectors can enter private property to look for or destroy ailing trees. 5/30

Agriculture official criticizes judge's ruling on canker law 5/30

Florida halts plan to cut 1,500 trees after judge calls canker plan illegal - The state has suspended plans to chop down 1,500 citrus trees in Palm Beach County this week, as both sides try to figure out the scope of last week's court ruling against the canker eradication program. 5/29

Judge rules Florida citrus canker law is unconstitutional - FORT LAUDERDALE — A judge ruled Friday that a new law giving Florida the power to chop down healthy citrus trees is unconstitutional, and he narrowed the state's ability to look for diseased trees.
Circuit Judge Leonard Fleet also said that the state must compensate tree-owners for any uninfected trees that were cut down and that a neutral third-party could determine the tree's worth.
The state's citrus canker eradication program "returns the state to a period of time when the rights of an individual were at the mercy of the whim of royalty," Fleet said in his ruling. 5/26

Trouble for citrus
Orlando Sentinel position: The state should appeal the court ruling preventing canker eradication 5/27

Lawmaker asks Bush to veto CFO bill - TALLAHASSEE — A state senator wants Gov. Jeb Bush to veto a bill merging two Cabinet offices because the legislation also has a provision dealing with citrus canker eradication.
Sen. Steve Geller, D-Hallandale Beach, wants the bill (HB 3-E) vetoed because it contains a provision that gives the state agriculture commissioner authority to suspend county and municipal ordinances to deal with an agricultural emergency.
The main purpose of the bill is to describe the job of Florida's chief financial officer. That office, which will be on the November, ballot merges the current posts of state comptroller and treasurer/insurance commissioner effective next January. 5/26

Letters to the Editor: Canker ruling to either save or decimate father's legacy - I have attended a number of Fort Lauderdale hearings on the citrus canker issue ("Boca tree cuts over canker stayed for week pending ruling," Friday). I support the homeowners' view; chopping all citrus trees within 1,900 feet of an infected tree is a brutal and unsuccessful way to solve the citrus industry's problem with potential blemishes that appear on fruit due to canker. 5/23

West Boca loses hundreds of trees to canker cutting
 While the city of Boca Raton awaits a court ruling expected this week that will decide the fate of its citrus trees, state agriculture crews sliced through another hundred trees in an area west of the city on Monday in an attempt to stop the spread of citrus canker. 5/21

Canker found in Highlands, 150 acres of grove to be burned
FORT BASINGER — Canker has been discovered in the southeast corner of Highlands County in an infestation believed to have been spread to 75 trees by grove equipment or workers. The infestation did not spread naturally from neighboring counties, said Richard Gaskalla, director of the Florida Division of Plant Industry on Wednesday. 5/18

Judge to state: Stop cutting healthy Broward, Dade citrus trees
FORT LAUDERDALE — The state cannot cut healthy citrus trees in Boca Raton and Miami-Dade and Broward counties and must take steps to protect healthy trees when it cuts those that are infected, a judge ruled Thursday. Circuit Judge Leonard Fleet issued the emergency order after about 900 Boca homeowners received notices that their canker-free citrus trees would be cut. 5/17

Boca canker cutting on hold
Broward Circuit Judge J. Leonard Fleet told the state Thursday to hold off cutting any of Boca Raton's trees exposed to citrus canker, at least until he rules next Friday. 5/17

Yet another county invaded by canker
Reaching deeper into the heart of the state's commercial citrus belt, canker has invaded a new county, state officials said Wednesday. 5/16

Hendry County's canker eradication program cut in half
TALLAHASSEE — The state program that cuts down uninfected citrus trees to prevent the spread of canker has been reduced by 50 percent in Hendry County, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson said Tuesday. The announcement comes after state-run surveys determined there were no canker-infected trees within a nine-mile region of the Big Cypress Seminole area. 5/15

State set to resume cutting citrus - More than 4,000 Palm Beach County citrus tree owners received an unwelcome notice from the Department of Agriculture this week, announcing plans to cut down healthy trees the state claims have been exposed to citrus canker.5/10/02

Boca Raton asking Broward judge to stop anti-canker crews
FORT LAUDERDALE — Lawyers from Boca Raton have asked a Broward County judge to stop the state from resuming to cut down healthy citrus trees as part of the state's anti-canker program 5/10/02

Proposed canker regulation favors state over counties
A proposed law could give citrus canker eradication crews the authority to flout local ''tree canopy'' ordinances when the state issues an emergency order, be it for citrus canker or hurricane response. 5/8/02

Canker-infected trees in Boca Raton cut down

Lawmakers Must Act Quickly In Battle Against Citrus Canker 2/21/02

Insidious citrus canker is hopscotching north - PALM BAY - After a battle to wipe out citrus canker in South Florida, the crop-destroying disease has spread to the Indian River grove country that is known for the boxed grapefruit sold to tourists and mailed as gifts.

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. 2/12/02

Editorial: Last resort on canker
Stalled in the courts, state agriculture officials have turned to the Legislature to get their citrus canker eradication program moving again. A bill that would codify the state's much-disputed... 1/28/02

State challenges role of judge on citrus canker- For the second time in its ongoing effort to reinstate Florida's controversial citrus canker eradication program, the state Department of Agriculture has asked that a judge be removed from a case that could determine whether the cutting of healthy trees can resume. (link is out of date)

State demands removal of judge who ordered canker cuttings halted - After sparing thousands of South Florida's citrus trees from the canker eradication crews, a state judge has come under attack from the Florida Department of Agriculture. (link is out of date)