Citrus farmers sour about landfill
SUN PHOTO BY BRENDA BARBOSA
A field of young orange trees is carefully tended to on The Packers farm on Bermont Road in east Punta Gorda. It takes between four and five years for a tree to go from seed to a fully mature tree that produces fruit. Farm owners say a proposed landfill would devastate their citrus-growing operation.
SUN PHOTO BY BRENDA BARBOSA
Mike Garavaglia points to a water canal on his family's 2,500-acre citrus farm, The Packers, on Bermont Road in east Punta Gorda. The farm is adjacent to parcel of land where Calusa Green LLC developers want to build a landfill. Garavaglia fears a landfill would hurt his business, as well as harm the water supply and surrounding ecosystem.
SUN PHOTO BY BRENDA BARBOSA
The Packers farm on Bermont Road in east Punta Gorda has about 1,200 acress of orange and grapefruit groves. Farm owners say a proposed landfill would devastate their citrus operation.
EAST OF PUNTA GORDA — Mike Garavaglia walks through a field of young citrus trees on his family’s 2,500-acre farm in eastern Charlotte County and admires the scene. Like a doting father, he comments on how nicely his little trees are growing.
In just two years, they have stretched from seeds to several feet tall, and now are showing signs of strong, healthy limbs. If all goes well, in a few years the trees will reach maturity and will be teeming with juicy oranges and fat grapefruits, which will make their way to local supermarkets, or may get shipped to places as far away as Russia and Japan.
