Clearwater Resident Returns Home From Work To Find City Chopped Down All Trees In Her Yard

CLEARWATER, FL — Patricia Kirby, a 20-year resident of Clearwater, confessed that she broke into tears when she returned home from work and saw the condition of her neighbor's yard.

That morning, Denise Buttacavoli's front yard at 1660 Magnolia Ave. was filled with mature, healthy camphor trees that provided a canopy of shade and sheltered a host of wild critters.

When Kirby returned home that night, she said Buttacavoli's yard was a barren wasteland. Every shade tree in the yard had been cut down by city of Clearwater tree service contractors.

A former federal park ranger, federal forest ranger and an independent contractor for the Environmental Protection Agency for more than 20 years, Kirby said she's spent her career trying to protect the environment and the wildlife that call it home.

"This kind of thing hurts my heart," she said.

Kirby displayed before and after photos of Buttacavoli's front yard on the overhead screen at the Clearwater City Council meeting Thursday night.

There was an audible gasp from the audience when Kirby showed the photo of Buttacavoli's yard after the trees had been cut down.

"It's really hard for me to see that picture because I can't help but cry and I cried the first day I saw it," Kirby said. "I told them, if I had known, I would have chained myself to one of those trees."

Wayne Martin, who has lived at 805 Spencer Ave., four houses down from the Buttacavolis' home, for 37 years, said he had a similar reaction.

"For years, I've enjoyed looking at the beauty of her house and those beautiful camphor trees," he told the council. "Now, when I turn that corner, it is devastating."

He said Clearwater has endured countless tropical storms over the years, even Hurricane Irma, which knocked out 75 percent of the power in Tampa Bay, but Buttacavoli's trees have always withstood the strong winds.

He said he doesn't buy the city's argument that the trees, which were in Buttacavoli's front yard but legally on city right of way, were a liability for the city.

"There needs to be some type of remedy to that property. It cannot stand the way it is today," he told the council as residents behind him applauded.

"The dramatic change to my yard has brought many of you here tonight," Buttacavoli said of the packed council chambers. "Tonight you will hear the tone of many different voices — fear, anger, confusion and disappointment. Please understand, these voices are begging for change and they want to be heard."

She said the problem with the city's tree ordinance, as outlined by Dan Mirabile, director of the city's public works department, at Tuesday's city council work session is that the ordinance doesn't take a tree's health into consideration.

Mirabile said the city is divided into five zones and each zone is inventoried every six years by an arborist at a cost of $30,000 a year.

This year the arborist tagged 4,000 of the 20,000 trees in that zone for removal using a rating system from 0 to 6.

He said trees are rated based on their species, diameter, health, whether power lines are overhead and whether they're home to nesting birds and other wildlife.

Under that rating system, said Mirabile, if a tree is rated a 3 or below, it is subject to removal. As a result, he told council members, the city has needlessly cut down healthy trees.

"I lost 100 percent (of trees) — 100 percent of the natural beauty, 100 percent of the wildlife connection, 100 percent shade and comfort and 100 percent of the joy," Buccavoli said.

"The language of the ordinance does not give exception to any tree below the average conditions," she said. "I know as a pharmacist that very few things are perfectly healthy. But we can nurse many of these trees back to life with structural support, routine pruning and life-sustaining nutrition."

Kirby said she called other Pinellas County cities and all told her that they'd never heard of a policy in which a city cuts down healthy trees.

"I want to see better for my city," Kirby said. "This whole thing made me ashamed to be a Clearwater resident and that's the first time I've felt that way."

She urged the city to amend its tree ordinance and "model your new policy after a city who's doing the right thing."

At the very least, said Kim Begay, vice president of the Clearwater Audubon Society, property owners should be notified in writing before the city cuts down a tree on right of way in front of their property so the residents can challenge the decision to cut it down.

"What happened to Denise and her family should never have happened," Begay said. "It was a travesty. The city needs to look at mitigation because her property value has been greatly reduced by the removal of those trees."

Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard said the council already agreed following the work session to put a hold on enforcing the tree ordinance until it can be reviewed.

"We have completely stopped the program and are going to reexamine it," he said.