A class action was filed against the department for taking down healthy citrus trees. The lawsuit was filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court and seeks to recover full and just compensation for the 66,468 backyard citrus trees removed under a state law that mandated the taking of trees that were within 1,900 feet of an infected specimen.
The citrus tree eradication program began in 1995 following the discovery in Miami-Dade County of canker, a bacterial, fruit-blemishing disease. Driving the program was the state's goal of maintaining the citrus industry's access to fresh fruit markets in the United States and abroad.
