Photo: Fort Myers News-Press
“A group of Cape Coral residents spent Saturday morning throwing shade around the city, but it could be a few years before it provides results.
The shade thrown was in the guise of hundreds of slash pine seedlings planted near the northeast corner of Veterans Parkway and Chiquita Boulevard under the direction of a local organization, the Future Forestry Corporation.
Russ Ringland, founder and president of the group, officially started in 2004, said Skyline Self Storage bought 800 seedlings.
‘This is good news for our city and good news for our future,’ Ringland said, and pointed to a grouping of 20-foot-tall trees nearby that the organization planted 15 years ago. “It takes a few years to really see the results, but the results will be phenomenal.’
The organization’s mission is to try to bring more trees back to Cape Coral…
“We plant during the rainy season because we plant so many trees that we could not keep up with watering all of them on a regular basis,’ he explained…
Destiny Thompson, 12, was getting Boy Scout service hours helping to plant the pine seedlings.
‘It’s giving air, and you’re getting outside so you’re not trapped,’ she said.
Middle schoolers and high schoolers such as Destiny and Dominic are ideal for this plantings, Ringland said.
‘This is really good for the kids to learn they can change their environment,’ he said. ‘They have control over some things, one of them is how you take care of the place where you live.’…”
— Michael Braun, Fort Myers News-Press