For many people used to the plush, green vegetation of New Providence, it could be depressing to drive around and witness the assault Hurricane Frances unleashed on trees across the island.<\/P><\/p>\n
Many of them are now dry and brown, with branches hanging limply, if not lying on the side of the road.<\/P><\/p>\n
Many of the trees blighted by the strong winds of the hurricane were actually purchased by the former government after a past hurricane.<\/P><\/p>\n
Prime Minister Perry Christie noted recently that the Free National Movement Government and the former Progressive Liberal Party Government spent millions of dollars importing palm trees.<\/P><\/p>\n
He spoke of his government\uffb4s intenTion to save the trees from total destruction.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93If they are not attended to in a very short period of time we would have caused by our own failure to address this issue to allow millions of dollars of trees to disappear,\uff92 he said. \uffa0<\/P><\/p>\n
One agriculturist explained to the Bahama Journal that because the rainy season has not yet ended, the trees should be \uff93brought back to life\uff92 in a matter of weeks.<\/P><\/p>\n
But local officials are helping to speed the process.<\/P><\/p>\n
Dole Burrows, a supervisor at the Department of Roads and Parks, said efforts have started to save the trees, particularly the palm trees.<\/P><\/p>\n
He said many of them need to be replanted in areas such as West By Street, Harrold Road, Blake Road and Independence Highway.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93We are propping trees up with braces and the ones that were toppled we are trying to replant them,\uff92 Mr. Burrows said. \uff93Most of the time when the trees are toppled only half of the root is destroyed and they lean on the side, so we are attempting to upright those trees.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
He said workmen from his department are attempting to ensure that the trees do not get the axe from any other government workers involved in hurricane cleanup efforts.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93Workmen from the Ministry of Works who clean the roads tend to go off the road and just cut down trees and think nothing of it,\uff92 Mr. Burrows said. \uff93We are trying to save as many trees as we can.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Kingsley Ferguson, a foreman at the Department of Environmental Health, told the Bahama Journal that some trees have to be uprooted and replanted. \uffa0<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93We are going to lift some of them out of the actual holes that they are in and dig them a little deeper and then prop them up with braces,\uff92 Mr. Ferguson said. <\/P><\/p>\n
Mr. Burrows, meanwhile, admitted that replanting the trees is a lot of work \uffa0<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93Not only are the trees costly, but we need to take care of them,\uff92 he said. \uff93People look at them and say they are just trees, but those trees cost money to be brought here and planted.\uff92 <\/P><\/p>\n
He said one palm tree costs $300 to be imported, but caring for the tree costs much more. <\/P><\/p>\n
Yvette Rolle-Major, The Bahama Journal<\/B><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One agriculturist explained that because the rainy season has not yet ended, the trees should be brought back to life in a matter of weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}