Sanibel is losing hundreds of sabal palms
To the editor:
Crisis? What crisis?
In the last few days my wife has been pointing out that many of the sabal palms (aka cabbage palms) on our one-acre lot here on the island are drying out and their fronds have a sort of telltale sign of bronze color on them. This has gotten our attention because we have many of those palms on our lot. Losing them would just be awful. They make up the bulk of our trees.
A quick search turned up numerous articles about a disease that is spreading throughout Florida. Why have we not been warned?
On my way to Jerry’s Foods for some groceries today I noticed acre after acre of dead sabal palms along Sanibel-Captiva Road starting at Sea Spray Lane going east. Dead palms line both sides of the road for quite a distance. Dead as a doornail. How could this have just happened without me noticing before?
Just so our dear neighbors know the dire scope of this situation, an article from the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is available online at https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/care/pests-and-diseases/diseases/sabal-palm-disease.html#:~:text=Palm%20specialists%20believe%20that%20the,and%20Canary%20Island%20palms.
The problem appears to be something called “Lethal Bronzing Disease” (LBD). If true, the bad news is there is no cure once a palm is infected.
I mean, if the folks at Sanibel’s vegetation department (is there such a thing?) couldn’t prevent the spread of LBD on public lands, how in the world should they expect individual homeowners to deal with it? Can we curtail the spread? It would be quite costly to have to hire a licensed tree surgeon to cut down and properly dispose of any palms showing signs of disease.
On our own property we can see a few of our younger palms have already died. But we have numerous others that are showing symptoms. As of now, the majority of our trees appear to be healthy. Especially in the back portion of our lot. Those along Sanibel-Captiva Road seem to have been exposed. We worry because it seems LBD spreads quickly.
To be sure, I am no expert. The evidence I’ve seen sure does look like LBD. But it could be some other less threatening issue. Heck, maybe it’s just extremely dry and they’ll bounce back? Yeah, maybe.
Today my wife posted a photo of the discolored fronds that are emerging here. One response said it is probably some sort of caterpillar infestation. Maybe so. Please make it so!
Anyway, folks here need to take notice because it sure does appear to be spreading. Take a drive on the western end of the island. You can’t miss it.
Memo to the Sanibel Vegetation Committee: Would you mind (please) looking into this developing story. What are we up against? What can we do about it? We hope to hear from you very soon, please!
Rob Parris
Sanibel