Tag Archives: oak trees of sewall’s point

Protecting the Trees of My Childhood, Sewall’s Point, St Lucie River/IndianRiver Lagoon

Aerial of Sewall's Point taken by Arthur Ruhnke in the 1950s. Photo courtesy of "Sewall's Point, the History of a Peninsular Community on Florida's Treasure Coast," by Sandra Henderson Thurlow.
Aerial of Sewall’s Point taken by Arthur Ruhnke in the 1950s. Photo courtesy of “Sewall’s Point, the History of a Peninsular Community on Florida’s Treasure Coast,” by Sandra Henderson Thurlow. The peninsula is covered by a heavily treed hammock–although many areas were cleared for mansions, and pineapple fields earlier in the century.

Born in 1964, and growing up here in Stuart and Sewall’s Point, one thing I certainly had in my childhood was freedom. Freedom to roam. Freedom to explore. Freedom to get into trouble, or decide not to….Freedom to ride my bike. Freedom to climb trees. Freedom to read a book on an empty lot. Freedom to build forts. Freedom to catch butterflies, and to jump in the river with my friends with our clothes on if we wanted to….

Oaks of Mirimar, Sewall's Point. (JTL 2014)
Oaks of Mirimar, Sewall’s Point. (JTL 2014)

I moved to Sewall’s Point from St Lucie Estates in Stuart, in 1974. I was a 10-year-old child with my parents, and siblings. This area was still “small” not developed widely until the 1980s. Certainly, Sewall’s Point did not look as undeveloped as it did in the above photo from the 1950s—- before the “Bridges to Sea” were built, but it was certainly less developed than it is today. In fact, as a kid, I thought the entire pennisula  was “mine,  and we kids often played in the old, falling apart estates of an another era long past, most famously, the old “High Point Rod and Gun Club.”

The demolition of this building is what set my mother, Sandra Thurlow,  on her path to write her book on Sewall’s Point (Sewall’s Point, a History of a Peninsular Community on Florida’s Treasure Coast.)  In fact, it was the Sewall’s Point Commission in 1986, that “ordered the demolition,” as she states it, “of the lovely old home that stood on a bluff overlooking the St Lucie River…”

This event spurred Sandy Thurlow, “housewife,” on to become, as she calls herself, “the self-appointed history lady,” over time, writing four books on Sewall’s Point, Stuart, Jensen, and the House of Refuge on Hutchinson Island. She has educated and inspired thousands of people and won state awards. Now that I think about it, she became an “activist for history!”

Ironically,  as the old adage says, “history repeats itself,” and I now find myself writing and having become a “self-appointed river activist” for the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, spurred on also by its destruction.

There is always a silver-lining, isn’t there…? And when I was comparing the photographs “of old” with some below taken “today,” I noticed that one thing in Sewall’s Point still stands tall: many of its incredible trees. In fact, an arborist last year told me that Sewall’s Point is one of the only communities on Florida’s entire east coast, that still has much of its “native hammock” in tact.

Last night at a Sewall’s Point commission meeting in 2015, as a commissioner myself,  I lost my composure. I think really for the very first time, ever….And although I consider myself, yes, rather intense, I pride myself on NOT losing my composure.

In discussion of pursuing policy making it tougher for residents and businesses to “hat wrack” (severely cut) or remove a tree without a permit, in one second of time, “I lost it.”

I lost it when I thought I was going to lose my fight. A fight I have been working on in the Town of Sewall’s Point for six and a half years. In the end, some miracle occurred and the commission directed the town manager to “look into it,” if nothing else, for the hardwoods or especially large-caliber oaks, many hundreds of years old…

I am embarrassed by how I acted. I even apologized. I think it is because protecting this place is in my blood and because when I was a kid I thought it  was “mine….” and you know what? In way it is. It is all of ours.

hat wrack
Large oak cut back in 2014.
Oak
Large oaks cut back at Sewall’s Point business, 2012.
Hat wracked oak
Oak with internal large limbs severely cut, 2013.
oak
One of two oak trees located on A1A in SP that once flowed with long limbs.  In 2012, an “A1A Sewall’s Point design” was created at the direction of the commission for all AIA trees “to be allowed to canopy” over AIA after under-grounding the  power lines. This large oak tree above, in a few hours, on a weekend, by one man and a chainsaw, hired  by an oblivious manger of an area business was “hat-wracked,” to avoid the power lines. Other oaks and pines, east of this area, also “planned” to canopy, were cut just 3 weeks before the town paid FPL hundreds of thousands of dollars to underground the power lines.  No fine was levied as the town was “seeking right of way” on the same property for AIA “improvements.”  Code called for thousands of dollars in fines….the business apologized and hired an attorney while FPL feigned ignorance…Many trees are hat-wracked each year. Most offenders go before the code enforcement board which can lessen fines spelled out in the code. In any case, the practice of severe pruning continues….

 

South Sewall's Point (date unknown)
Aerial, south Sewall’s Point (date unknown, maybe 1990s) Sewall’s Point is surrounded by the St Lucie on the west and the Indian River Lagoon on the east.
South Sewall's Point
South Sewall’s Point today-still many trees. (Photo 2015, JTL)