A Complaint of Trees
 

In Hawkins by the Highway, the Live Oaks are withering.

Trees are dying by the dozens.

There is a preserve with wonderful walking paths -- really, the walking areas are grand.

The problem is that the preserve is encircled by homes on elevated lots and raised, paved, walking paths. It has created an unnatural bowl where water levels are high.

The gums, the pines, and the oaks are swamped and dying. Live Oaks are named as such because they keep their leaves. Some around Hawkins are bare -- the ones further away, up in elevation are fine, for now.

Two weeks ago, a blow started and a tree in the preserve fell across a fence and landed on a house. Next door, another tree fell over the iron-like fence and fell across another homeowner's lot.

Two days later, a Monday, a convoy of tree workers came in with heavy equipment and topped all the dead trees. On this side of the preserve, these trees are younger, smaller, but they too, died. They lived for years and years before the development. Like the centennial-aged live oaks, they couldn't take the wet soil from the unnatural landscaping.

What is most distressing is the old oaks that probably were alive during the first European treks through Central Florida; they, too, are dying due to root rot. Not a couple, many -- I counted around a dozen on the side facing Meggison.

Please walk the beautiful trail in Hawkins and see I exaggerate not.

I wish The Villages were concerned about this.

Which 'Highway' are you talking about - Meggison, Warm Springs, or Morse?

maybe either 44, or the turnpike? those would be closest

After the winds from the hurricane come through they'll be down if they're that bad.

The closest to Hawkins is Meggison.

Impossible. It can't possibly be the result of pooling caused by overdevelopment of artificially raised plots of land. How do I know? All the Villagers who tell me the developers don't make those kinds of mistakes told me so.

Very sorry to hear about this. Has this been brought to the attention of TPTB?

TPTB? What is that?

Tag line should read: Fully vaccinated twice boosted and got covid on a cruise, and lived to tell about it. Just a thought.
😶

The Powers That Be...

I guess, yes. The regional Villages manager came to inspect the home that was hit by the tree.

He told the owner, it was an act of god, and The Villages was not responsible.

Some tree removal was done 6 or so months ago when they were rotting and threatening another home.

So, yeah, I think the TPTB know, have known.

There is a widow-maker tree on the Hawkins trail right now. I walk around it, out of its distance. Maybe it will come down naturally during the weather events this coming week.

The Powers That Be

Will consider adding to my signature.

Contact The Villages, Property Management at 352-753-4022. They are very responsive.

I think they are referring to "301" which Warm Springs Rd dead ends right at the edge of the new Village of Hawkins.

Beware the hurricane....will be a lot worse

301 and Warm Springs is the Village of DeLuna. Hawkins is on Morse, south of Chitty Chatty.

Hawkins is cross from Bradford & St Catherine... Where Morse meets Meggison...

De Luna is much farther north than 301 & Warm Springs...

301 & Warm Springs is Fenney...

so...
 

does anyone know if that rude, obnoxious, no class person is still working at the mangrove, sweetem course?

"Act of God"? Not failure to prudently remove a clear and present danger before God gets a chance to throw it on someone's home? And, which God? Jehovah, Zeus, Krishna, ? What if the home owner is an atheist? Is it then just an unfortunate accident? Is there no responsibility/liability for not removing a known hazard?
Love to hear the case argued in court.

And yet you bought a house here in this irresponsible development. So your part of the problem.

You're correct. I was confusing Hawkins with Bradford and thinking 301 and Marsh Bend. My bad. I hadn't finished my coffee. :ho:

A complaint of trees
 

Yes, we live on the north side of the Haga preserve, and we also have lost several large Live Oak‘s, and several others have a lot of dead branches in them, and probably won’t survive.

It’s either because the water has been trapped in here and/or Because they’ve ran over the routes so much during the development they have contacted the dirt and the trees can’t get enough oxygen. Up north if you run over roots of a giant oak and come back the earth they die within a year.

It would be nice if they would replace them with trees that can withstand that excess water.

Hogeye not Haga, sorry.

I am sorry, I should’ve checked the first letter after dictating to Siri. I was trying to say compacted dirt.

Do you mean "compact"????

Yes

People seem to argue over anything. An act of god means an act of nature. What they are saying they are not liable for damages. The person whose home was damaged can choose to dispute this. IF, they are coverend by insurance the insurance company can pay the damages and then go after other parties.

Any environmental change can and will kill some plants. Most noticable are trees. Driving heavy consturction equipment near trees. Piling soil, dumping chemicals can kill trees. Were these areas truly WILD there would not be the paved walking paths.

Yes, the water has been trapped in Hogeye for hundreds of years. That is why it is named HOGEYE SINK. The water flows in but cannot get out, so it eventually evaporates away.