Cape Coral fined thousands for ripping up mangroves

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Mangroves. (Credit: WINK News)
Mangroves. (Credit: WINK News)

The City of Cape Coral is getting fined thousands of dollars on Wednesday for ripping out protected mangroves at Four Mile Cove.

Alyn Kay used to work for the South Florida Water Management District. As an expert in landscape architecture and erosion control, he calls what is happening with the mangroves at Four Mile Cove, a “massacre.”

WINK News went out on a boat with Kay and Joe Cruz, who lives along the Coral Pointe Canal to get a closer look at the damage workers caused in August 2019.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection stepped in and stopped all work after learning Cape Coral crews had ripped out an estimate of over 6,000 sq. feet of mangroves.

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