Fernandina Beach, the charming small town on Amelia Island, is now an early 2022 entry in the category MOST ABUSIVE PALM PRUNING BY A MUNICIPALITY (FLORIDA) with its bold claim that “For the next few weeks, the City’s streets department will be be pruning palms downtown to keep them in tip-top shape.”
They got the tip-top part right, because the only remaining functioning fronds will be a few green ones at the very top of these palms. Fernandina Beach is an historic town, some would say a town old enough to know better, but that isn’t stopping the City from pruning in a manner completely contrary to the standards adopted by the International Society of Aboriculture or the palm pruning recommendations of IFAS.
If there are no other entries this year, Fernandina Beach will receive the 2022 “Scalpy” in the municipal category. But that seems unlikely since it is early in the year, and so many municipalities ignore the adopted standards.