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Sarasota County crews hope to save hundreds of young trees toppled by Ian

Crews have started to hammer stakes to the ground to which they would reinforce more than 350 trees.

VENICE, Fla. — Trimming crews in Sarasota County are still trying to clear up the mess after strong winds from Hurricane Ian toppled thousands of trees across Florida.

Many trees managed to hold their own against the wind but were left leaning.

In Sarasota County, crews have started to pull some of the salvageable trees back up. They are trying to rescue hundreds of young oak trees that succumbed to the hurricane and keep them alive. They are also removing the ones that can't be saved. 

The process looks to save taxpayers thousands of dollars.

"Nobody wants to see oak trees go down," said Chris Rightmeyer, an arborist with Sarasota County Public Works.

One by one, Rightmeyer and his co-worker from the county's Forestry Department have pulled up several of the downed trees.

They've hammered stakes to the ground to which they would reinforce more than 350 trees. 

Crews with the county identified more than 700 trees within the Street Tree Program that were affected by the storm.

The ability to rescue one of the identified trees depends on the safety of the tree's location in the case that it should fall again, the tree's root system and the trunk's diameter.

"6 to 10 inches, anything less than that, we can re-stake. If it's larger than that then they have to be removed," said Bill Gore, Field Services senior manager with the county's public works. 

Around 300 different trees, most of them young oaks which were planted in medians and in the right of way along roadsides have been tagged to be removed.

"You've got to look at what kind of foliage there is at the top of the tree for that kind of damage. You've got to look at the total height of the tree and then look at the roots, whether or not those roots are still intact and still in the ground well enough to survive," said Gore.

Trees in the Street Tree Program include some installed by developers and then turned over to the county for ownership and maintenance along with others planted by county crews to provide shading and beautification. One small tree can cost anywhere starting from $200, so each tree that crews can rescue and pull up is a loss prevention gain for taxpayers, according to Gore.

"They belong to the public so it's always important to try to salvage as many of those as possible, besides the environmental benefit of having these trees as they create shading and beautification," he said.

The trees that are removed would be ground up into mulch and used to floor a landfill in Desoto County.

"Anything we can preserve we would like to preserve," said Rightmeyer.

The process of staking the trees and removing the damaged ones is expected to take around three to four weeks.   

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