The UF Lakes, Vegetation, and Landscaping Committee will meet this Thursday, December 7th, 2023, at 9am to discuss a proposal to cut down 182 trees west of campus to expand a parking lot for the UF Health Ortho Building, and we are looking for people to speak out against that -- there are better alternatives!

Please see the committee's meeting attachment (starting pg. 22) for photos and details of the plan.  We are hoping people can write emails to the committee, show up to the meeting, or tune in to the webinar, starting 9am; link (from the agenda) is here: https://ufl.zoom.us/j/98495890101.  This small forest is home to deer, and birds, and should not be destroyed when other alternative locations for parking, including nearby open fields, would make better choices.  The presenters also did not give a full breakdown of tree diameters, so the mitigation calculations might be inaccurate, and should at minimum be presented to the public for transparency as to what we are losing.

Additionally, the committee will hear a proposal (starting pg. 10 of attachment) to knock down about a dozen more trees to build a new Disability Resource Center in the middle of UF campus, but the plans call for having a large field of sod, at the expense of several existing trees, including two heritage ones which are used by hawks and other native birds.  Several of the tree species are misidentified, and NO actual mitigation is being proposed for these losses (neither clear location of replacement tree plantings NOR payment into the tree mitigation fund is specified).