chapter 11 of the University of Florida\u2019s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences journal ENH1061<\/a>, placing stakes may be needed to stabilize a tree\u2019s root ball. Trunks with a diameter greater than 1.5 centimeters are not necessary, and if stakes are placed for larger trunks it may lead to a \u201clesser quality tree.\u201d<\/p>\nIn September 2025, Raterman documented the strain of staked palm and maple trees along Olean Boulevard.<\/p>\n
Ralph Mitchell, director for the county\u2019s extension of UF IFAS, said the initiative to stake the trees came after hurricanes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to set it up and another thing to remove it,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cMuch of this was well-meaning first aid after the hurricanes, but kept on too long or forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"CSjustictrees091526-3.jpg\"](\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\")
<\/p>\n
The one remaining tree in front of the justice center before the straps were removed.<\/p>\n
PHOTO COURTESY OF LOUISE RATERMAN<\/p>\n
In August, Raterman sent an email to the Charlotte County Commissioners about a tree in front of the Charlotte County Justice Center in Punta Gorda.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is only alive because someone removed the strap which was strangling it,\u201d Ratterman said.<\/p>\n
Previous trees replanted in front of the Justice Center failed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s horrible only one remains,\u201d Raterman said.<\/p>\n
Hank Flores, a urban design manager with Punta Gorda told The Daily Sun that the maintenance of these trees falls under the county\u2019s Facilities Management Department.<\/p>\n
Mike Bonasera, Punta Gorda assistant city manager, said Flores and the urban design team drove to the Justice Center to investigate. Randy Cole, facilities operations and maintenance manager, gave The Daily Sun an update.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis tree had previously been strapped for support, and those straps were later removed,\u201d Cole stated in an email. \u201cFollowing a subsequent windstorm, the tree fell over, so we had the installer reset it and reinstall the straps temporarily to determine if the tree could be saved.\u201d<\/p>\n
New tree saplings will be planted.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team at the Justice Center is working with our contractors to replace the missing trees and have been making necessary repairs to the irrigation system for the planter boxes that suffered damages from the many storms,\u201d Cole wrote.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Strapped trees along Tamiami Trail near a Walgreens.<\/p>\n
PHOTO COURTESY OF LOUISE RATERMAN<\/p>\n
Raterman noticed more staked and roped trees along Tamiami Trail on Sept. 1. These trees, which fall under the jurisdiction of Charlotte County Public Works, are under investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur people that do the trees are going to go out and conduct a review,\u201d Public Works Public Relations Manager Chad Ray said. \u201cHopefully, we\u2019\u2019ll get a work order in and get it fixed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raterman hopes the county properly replants trees.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople should care about where they live, about the plants and trees that belong here in Florida,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s important now because that\u2019s what feeds wildlife. All the frogs, toads, salamanders and worms that birds take home lead to death without trees.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Staked palm trees near Gasparilla Road. A common practice to regrow and stabilize trees to withstand strong winds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,853,159538,159537,159541,159540,159539,13935],"class_list":["post-401103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-charlotte-county","tag-charlotte-county-facilities","tag-charlotte-county-public-works","tag-replanting-trees","tag-stakes","tag-tree-staking","tag-trees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401103","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=401103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}