FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Newlywed Karen Cooper is not going to be widowed any time soon.
The landmark ficus tree she married in an attention-getting Saturday ceremony will be spared by the city of Fort Myers, its Beautification Advisory Board decided Tuesday.
During an emotional hour filled with pleas, testimony and reminiscences, board members heard resident after resident speak on behalf of the tree, which the city had proposed razing. Dana Foglesong, another ficus bride, showed the board a petition with more than 200 signatures.
Paul Giordano read a note from his 10-year-old daughter, Emma, who couldn't attend, begging for the tree's life.
Retired landscape architect, Don Stewart, who grew up on Almeria Avenue, which dead-ends at the park, told the board, "(This) is not about just another tree in the way of progress ... If you let this tree be cut, you will be destroying decades of memories," he said. "Please do not let it become another victim of the chainsaw. That's not progress."
Longtime resident Sue Bennett Grimes spoke on behalf of the park, and in memory of her parents who owned the property next to the tree for many years. "Never did they feel they needed to compromise, in any way, that tree," she said.
She recalled the generations of kids who'd climbed it, swung from it and enjoyed it. Please, she asked the board, "Have it trimmed and let the memories live on."
After they'd finished, parks and Beautification Manager J.B. Schuetz said, "With the outcry … and emotional response from the neighborhood, the city is not going to remove that tree," sparking a standing ovation (his first, he said) and nearly a full minute of cheers and applause.
Rooted in Fort Myers' Snell Family Park, the much-loved landmark's spreading roots and limbs have overgrown the city property boundary over the years. Certified arborist Rick Joyce recently estimated 29 percent of the tree's 8,000-square-foot canopy extends over the neighboring lot, which is for sale for $1 million.
After prospective owner Jeff Romer asked the city about his legal responsibilities to the tree last year, city officials floated the notion of cutting it down, for $13,000 in taxpayer money. Safety and ongoing maintenance would be challenges, they reasoned, if Romer built on the lot and impeded access.
But once neighbors heard of that plan, protests, petitions and actions to save the tree started, including the marriage of Cooper and several other ficus lovers Saturday. The tree is something of a local celebrity, its silvery hide is scarred with lovers' initials, its sprawling branches have shaded countless weddings, family portraits and picnics.
The park was donated to the city in 1927 by land developer Getty E. Snell and his wife, Rosa, provided it "always be used by the general public in gaining access to the river and shall never be leased or used by private individuals."
Cooper's bid to bring attention to the ficus' plight with her tree wedding succeeded. The story was picked up by national and international news outlets and though some readers questioned Cooper's sanity, she assured them there was method to her madness.
"I am not a whack job," she said, "(I was) just trying to prevent one."
For his part, Schuetz said, "I do appreciate everybody’s public opinion; that’s why we have a democracy."
