By Savannah Green, the FL4EverGreen Team
Did you know UF is currently planning to remove hundreds of large, healthy trees across campus, with little transparency or input from the public? From the Graham Pond area tree stripping (155 trees) to Jennings Creek recontouring (69 trees), campus will become much more barren in the name of UF’s insatiable appetite to build, build, build, at the expense of its history and the environment. However, there is at least one upcoming Project that the Gator Nation can still weigh in on vital to the campus ecosystem and worker health, and organizers are asking for your help to sign a petition (tinyurl.com/Iguana2292) and learn more about the harmful “Surge Area” Project.
Heat exposure is one of the biggest dangers facing Florida workers today, and they need shade for safety! But the University of Florida is planning to cut down ~30 large, healthy trees vital for sun protection for some of the most heat-stressed employees on campus, including those who handle hazardous waste in a warehouse without air conditioning.
The public has been kept in the dark regarding the plan, and nearly all of the workers, researchers, students, and faculty in this area were not informed about these tree removals before the design decision was made. Besides the lack of transparency, the supposed purpose of the Project is to construct water retention ponds to “alleviate” water storage concerns in a naturally wet part of campus (called the “Surge Area” for a reason), and it is not clear that this proposal will do much to fix that.
Regardless, trying to solve one problem while creating several more at the expense of the environment and vulnerable workers is not a solution, so petitioners are asking UF to stop the Project or at least redesign it to save all the important shade trees, while also guaranteeing the hiring of a full-time arborist and more transparency in future decision making.
As more background, beginning July 3, the UF Lakes, Vegetation and Landscaping “LVL” Committee held a secretive meeting right before the holiday without posting the agenda online beforehand, and refused to make the Zoom link available to the public, despite voting members attending virtually. That belated agenda requested the removal of more than 100 trees on campus, nearly all of which were “approved” through this non-transparent manner. The last item, “Project MP07942,” which was voted on during an equally-non-transparent “continuation” of the meeting on July 17, sought the removal of 30 huge and healthy trees, five of which are large enough to be considered “heritage,” and many of which are vital to the everyday life of workers in the Surge Area in the southwest part of campus.
As the name implies, the “Surge Area” lies largely within a floodplain, which makes the area naturally wet after heavy rains, but not generally dangerous to people. This swamp and forested area is what makes the Natural Area Teaching Laboratory (“NATL”), adjacent to many of those buildings, a wonderful place to learn about Florida ecosystems. In 2024, two small, old buildings were removed in the southwest part of the Surge Area, and that space is now being used to make way for more retention ponds, which are contemplated under this Project, fully called “MP07942 – Health Center Surge #4 Flooding Issues.”
However, another nearby building, the Nuclear Field Building (#0554) along Natural Area Drive, was chosen to be renovated instead of demolished. The one-story brick building was originally built at ground level, and perhaps as an oversight or due to cost issues, recent renovations did not include elevating the foundation.
Instead, original renovation plan designs back in mid-2023 called for minimal tree removal, consisting of ~7 trees, which were approved by the LVL Committee in June 2023. But once renovations began, those myopic designs led to yet another round of requests for tree removals in December 2024, this time to create even more trenches and piping around the building, bringing the total tree removal count into the double digits, and still not fixing the fundamental “problem” of building in or near a flood zone.
As stated in the presentation now available online (starting pg. 45, tinyurl.com/Iguana2291), the plan seeks to protect “infrastructure and vehicles” but does not consider the people who will be most affected by these changes and what puts them most at risk, including the blinding Florida sun. UF did not even seek input let alone inform the workers in the existing Surge Area buildings before coming up with the design and getting approval from the LVL Committee. These students, researchers, and staff work with and even transport many hazardous chemicals, and the tree loss contemplated here would potentially endanger those activities if the tree canopy currently protecting them is removed.
UF campus deserves better, and UF needs to be smarter about where and how it builds. Please sign this petition (tinyurl.com/Iguana2292), and support UF workers, transparency, and the environment!
The FL4EverGreen Team is a new campus organization focused on saving the trees on UF’s campus. For more information, email them at FL4EverGreen@gmail.com.