TEMPLE TERRACE —Temple Terrace was built around its trees and century-old golf course. Now, city leaders are investing at least $60,000 to give both a boost.
The Temple Terrace City Council last week unanimously approved a detailed five-year plan to replace aging and hazardous trees with hundreds of younger, nursery-grade specimens, restoring and enhancing much of the beauty of the golf course.
The plan was prepared by Bio-Tech Consulting, in partnership with city arborist Joe Ferris. The city previously approved in January the removal of 17 trees, determined to be the “worst of the worst,” according to Ferris.
The project will be implemented in five phases.
Phase 1 will see the removal of 35 trees, beginning this month, with the planting of 77 replacements.
Phase 2, which will begin in October, will include the removal of 20 more trees, with 114 being planted.
Over five years, 94 trees will be removed, and 441 trees will be planted.
The cost of the project, with some additional labor costs expected, will be covered by the city’s tree fund, which currently sports a $1.4-million balance.
Bio-Tech is one of three companies that replied to a solicitation last November. The company submitted the lowest bid, and already has a relationship with the city as it is handling Temple Terrace’s current Urban Canopy Project.
“We did our best to create a science-based strategy to restore and enhance the golf course, with a special emphasis on beautification of the golf course,” said Jeremy Cooper, the director of arboriculture and forestry resources for Bio-Tech. “The purpose is just to transform the golf course into a safer, more beautiful and ecologically sustainable environment.”
Cooper said establishing the new trees will be the project’s “heaviest lift,” especially in the first two months after planting. The new plants will require watering three to six times a week and will be spread out across the 6,000-acre golf course.
The new plants will come in 15-gallon containers and stand about 10 feet tall, which is much smaller than the current mature trees dotting the course.
“The reason we’re not going bigger is the smaller trees — depending on the species — over 5-10 years will actually outgrow the larger trees on the long term,” Cooper said.
The younger trees establish roots better than older ones, are more resilient to wind and storm damage and are 10-30 times cheaper.
There will be 14 different species of trees planted in all. Red Cedars, for example, will provide privacy along the street intersections surrounding the course, and some live oaks will be planted as well for shade.
Flowering species are expected to add color, enhancing the overall look of the course.
“I think this golf course is going to be extremely beautiful during the flowering season, spring, early summer,” he said.
Ferris will manage the implementation of the plan. Golf course personnel will handle removal and planting, while public works oversees watering these trees.
The tree fund should be able to handle any additional costs of replacing any trees that don’t take root, Ferris added.
The city is also awaiting completion of the Urban Canopy Plan, which city manager Carlos Baia said would be presented to the council in April.
That project catalogued 2,748 trees across 61 different species on city property, minus the golf course, and determined that 30 percent of the canopy could reach the end of their life cycle within 20 years.
The plan is focusing on increasing canopy coverage by 10% over the next two decades while diversifying tree species — and will take another chunk out of the tree fund.
“So, despite the fact this is $60,000 now for the golf course… the Urban Canopy Plan, I imagine, will be a little bit more robust in terms of whatever number that is.”
Baia said that the tree fund has benefitted from large scale development in recent years, bulging its balance. But that growth has decreased.
“As we slow down with that large scale development, we may not be getting that much of an influx into the tree fund in large slugs,” he said. “So I want to make sure everybody understands that we have a robust balance today, but that’s we’re going to have to ride that for a while.”