MIAMI \u2014 A fight over tree protections is heating up in the City of Miami, with residents and activists clashing with city officials over what they say is a weakening of existing protections for mature trees.<\/p>\n
Activists claim too many tree removal permits are being granted in order to fast-track development. City officials, however, insist nothing has changed.<\/p>\n
At a recent City of Miami Historic and Environmental Preservation Board meeting, frustrated residents voiced concerns over what they described as a growing loss of legacy canopy trees across the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe madness needs to stop,\u201d one resident said. \u201cI\u2019m wondering if developers have some special hatred toward mature trees?\u201d<\/p>\n
Others pointed to what they called a constant issue of clear-cutting lots and cutting down large trees.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen this just rampant onslaught of tree slaughter,\u201d another activist said.<\/p>\n
Critics say the removals are happening throughout Miami, from Coconut Grove to Morningside.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the past six months, we\u2019ve definitely seen an increase, and people are extremely angry,\u201d said Jessica Johnson, a Morningside resident.<\/p>\n
Among the examples cited by activists: a row of mature royal palm trees cut down at 1401 Brickell and four legacy native mahogany trees in Edgewater that were permitted for removal by the city despite being in the public right of way.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it seems like they\u2019re on a murder spree right now,\u201d said Edgewater resident Lindsay Cain.<\/p>\n
Sandy Moise, conservation co-chair for the Sierra Club Miami Group, said the justification for some removals is construction activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the reason given is that trees are conflicting with construction activities,\u201d Moise said.<\/p>\n
Videos posted to social media documenting tree removals have fueled outrage among activists.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt truly is a tree travesty,\u201d Moise said. \u201cWe are losing so many of our specimen-sized trees.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moise and other activists accuse the city of quietly bending and reinterpreting Chapter 17 — the ordinance meant to protect trees — in order to speed up development projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re failing to enforce our code,\u201d Moise said. \u201cThey\u2019re failing to implement the policies that are required of our code, and we\u2019re not having it anymore. We\u2019re fed up.\u201d<\/p>\n
City officials pushed back against those claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is not the case,\u201d said Miami District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo.<\/p>\n
Pardo acknowledged the optics can look bad amid a wave of development and visible tree removals, particularly involving palms, but denied any internal changes to Chapter 17.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely not,\u201d Pardo said when asked whether there had been backroom changes to expedite tree removals. \u201cThere\u2019s been no changes that I\u2019m aware of.\u201d<\/p>\n
While officials say the code itself has not changed, city staff acknowledged there has been a directive to make the permitting process easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so they come in and they sit with the reviewer on the spot, regardless what division,\u201d said Shawn Smith, acting chief of environmental resources for the City of Miami.<\/p>\n
Smith said the process still follows Chapter 17 requirements.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not an approval. You conduct your review just as if there were any other review,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe still go through the same process. We still follow Chapter 17.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether the city is moving at a faster clip, Smith said, \u201cNot in regard to approval.\u201d<\/p>\n
Activists argue the growing number of permits tells a different story. They created a public dashboard called Miami Tree Canopy Watch to track open permits across the city. According to activists, there are currently 223 open permits.<\/p>\n
Pardo said those numbers alone are misleading.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re only looking at those data points, it\u2019s misleading, because we\u2019re also planting a lot of trees, relocating a lot of trees,\u201d Pardo said. \u201cSomething could be slated for removal, and it could be something completely different that the resident isn\u2019t aware of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, activists and environmental experts warn the stakes are high as South Florida faces increasing heat driven by climate change.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrees are protecting us from the increasing heat that we\u2019re experiencing in South Florida,\u201d said Chris Baraloto, associate director of the FIU Institute of Environment and professor of biological sciences. \u201cBy removing those trees, we will feel the urban heat island effect even more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pardo said the city is committed to preserving the canopy and pointed to a banyan tree that had been slated for removal but was ultimately spared.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do everything from actually relocating trees to other areas to make sure the ones that can be relocated,\u201d Pardo said. \u201cIf they can\u2019t be relocated, we ask for mitigation, where usually it\u2019s two times the existing level of tree removal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Critics argue replacing mature trees with saplings is not enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re effectively doing is taking out a tree, and even if we\u2019re following our current mitigation, we\u2019re replacing it with this,\u201d Baraloto said. \u201cIs this commensurate value with that? Certainly not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ian Wogan, owner of Tree Sources, warned the long-term impacts could become more noticeable citywide.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we scale that up to the city level, we\u2019re going to start feeling urban heat,\u201d Wogan said.<\/p>\n
Wogan said Miami has an obligation to prioritize trees and nature-based solutions as critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot for ourselves, but for the generations to come,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
More than 1,200 signatures have been added to an action alert email addressed to Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins and city commissioners calling for a moratorium on all non-emergency tree removal permits until any proposed policy changes to Chapter 17 are publicly reviewed.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the long-awaited tree committee is expected to go before commissioners Thursday for approval, giving residents a voice in the future of Chapter 17 and Miami\u2019s tree protections.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 A fight over tree protections is heating up in the City of Miami, with residents and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-270454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}