CYPRESS MULCH IS CHIPPING AWAY AT NATURE

Friday January 26, 2007

Chopping down a cypress tree to build a better landscape is like tearing down a historical home for lumber to build a better garage. The end products may be pretty to look at but the price is incalculable and the materials irreplaceable.

If you’ve been in Florida for more than 48 hours, your vocabulary has already expanded to include words like nature friendly and environmental impact. Amble along the boardwalk that threads through a wetland sanctuary and you’ll discover a buffet of ecological terms that include the likes of otter ponds, pine flats and the grandfathers of the marsh, cypress trees.

Cypress are survivors. They thrive in the rainy season and winter droughts, hold ground in fires and stand like giant exclamation points penetrating the wetlands’ leafy canopy.

What they cannot survive is the lumbering operations that have been stealing one of nature’s historical treasures an acre at a time since the state’s pioneers settled Florida in the 1800s. The hardy trees have been used for furniture, fences and now flowerbeds. Homeowners insist cypress mulch is a superior landscaping product and longer lasting than alternatives.

The ironic reality is it takes hundreds of years for cypress trees to develop the hardwood cores that gave mulch the reputation for durability. However, over-harvesting has stripped vast areas of the large, mature trees, the ones with hardwood cores.

Younger and younger trees are being chopped and chipped for mulch, which means mulch made from the immature trees is not likely to perform any better than alternative products. It will not look any better, either, since other landscape choices are available in a range of hues, including the hallmark gold-brown earth tones of cypress chips.

Tons of cypress mulch piled on pallets in garden shops make it easy to miss some other truths about cypress trees:
• Experts estimate that when a cypress forest is harvested, between 70 and 80 percent will remain barren forever;
• Cypress trees can live up to 1,500 years and reach 25 feet in girth; but
• It takes up to 600 years for a cypress to grow large enough for the base to be sliced into coffee-table tops.

“Historically, people have taken more from the environment than they have returned, and today we are dealing with the consequences,” said Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah. “Wetlands are among the most fragile of our ecosystems, and recovery from decades of damage is a painfully slow process.”

Demand for cypress has pushed some wetlands to the edge of ecological catastrophe and others are close. But product reputations die as slowly as rumors, said John Cauthen. “Even though there are several landscape alternatives that are comparable, cypress mulch sales continue to account for about 60 percent of the entire market,” he said. “Cypress is still regarded by many people as a premium product and is even a status symbol with some homeowners.”

Cauthen is CEO of Forestry Resources Inc., which he founded in 1983. The Fort Myers-based company manufactures landscape materials for wholesale and retail distribution. In 1985, long before most people even heard the words environmentally friendly, Cauthen established himself as an industry pioneer when Forestry Resources introduced FloriMulch, its signature product.

FloriMulch – an attractive, high-quality alternative to cypress mulch – has all the properties a landscape likes. It is organic, acts as a weed barrier, doesn’t float away in rains, helps prevent moisture from evaporating during the dry winter months, is nontoxic, provides an inhospitable habitat for termites, is certified by the Mulch and Soil Council and is state certified as a nematode-free product.

Friends of the Florida Everglades endorses FloriMulch. The Suncoast Native Plant Society recommends it. Environmentalists salute it. A most unusual pedigree, but easy to understand.

FloriMulch is made from melaleuca trees, a highly invasive exotic that proliferates everywhere in South Florida, destroys habitat, consumes up to 2,200 gallons of water per acre per hour, and until Forestry Resources started to work, it had no natural enemies. On an average day, five to seven acres of melaleuca trees are cleared and turned into mulch.

“By choosing alternative mulch materials, homeowners, business owners and every single person working in the landscape industry can play a significant role in helping to ease the pressure on our cypress trees and impacts to wetlands from logging operations,” according to Rick Joyce, former director of the Lee County Department of Environmental Sciences and president of the Florida Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture.

“Today there are many different kinds of mulch available that provide the same landscape and plant health benefits as the products made from cypress trees,” Joyce said. “Melaleuca mulch is one of several excellent alternative choices that not only look good, they are good. It is a wonderful way to recycle this problematic invasive, exotic tree. Wetlands and the biological functions they provide are critical to the balance of the planet’s natural systems. It is simple to me, wetlands are impacted and degraded when cypress trees are destroyed and ground up for mulch. The benefits of using natural materials other than cypress reach well beyond protecting the native trees. By using cypress tree alternative mulches, I truly believe this a relatively easy way to make a positive difference to the place we live.”

“FloriMulch is an outstanding example of a win-win for the environment,” Cauthen added. “We have taken an environmental threat and turned it into a useful product that benefits landscapes beyond the aesthetics of groomed gardens.”

Other high-quality alternatives to cypress mulch are eucalyptus and pine bark, both renewable resources that are agricultural crops. Pine straw – needles shed by pine trees – is also an excellent weed barrier, and is available by the bale in garden supply stores.

“Everyone has a stake in the health and well-being of our natural resources,” said Commissioner Judah. “That means everyone also has a responsibility to respect and help protect our environment and preserve the unique lifestyle it provides to all of us.”

According to Cauthen, that can be as easy as choosing the right landscape materials.

Forestry Resources is an industry leader in the manufacturing of environmentally friendly landscape materials for wholesale and retail distribution. For information about Forestry Resources, landscaping and landscape products, and the Southwest Florida environment, call (239) 334-7343, or visit www.gomulch.com.