In a two-hour zig-zag tour across Alachua County, Eben Broadbent, a University of Florida professor, showcased the county’s prehistoric-like beauty as well as what he fears the area will become.
Parts of Alachua County are still home to massive southern live oaks, which Broadbent said can be as impressive as trees in the Amazon rainforest he studies as an associate professor in UF’s School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences.
But more and more, the woods here are disappearing to make way for shopping centers, apartment buildings and the infrastructure needed for a growing population.
About 700 properties in the county that were nearly covered with trees in 2017 had little to no canopy left by 2025, according to a WUFT data analysis of Broadbent’s data.
Broadbent is the creator of Alachua Wild, a site that measures canopy loss and deforestation in the area.
From the outside, what leads to a loss of trees is not always easy to see; before trees come down and construction begins, the process often moves through various layers of applications, reviews and tough decisions, insiders told WUFT.
While most parts of the county lost forests, the areas that had the biggest loss were west of Interstate 75, where the county’s population is expanding, and along major corridors like Newberry and Archer roads, where commercial projects have pushed into once wooded land.
According to WUFT’s analysis:
- The area just west of I-75 and north of SW 24th Street lost more than 70% of its forests since 2017. That includes a swarth of canopy about four football fields long that was cut down in 2024.
- The area just south, along Southwest Archer Road and near Lake Kanapaha, lost more than 30% of its forest in recent years.
- North along I-75, between High Springs and Alachua, more than a dozen smaller parcels were cleared, removing 10% of the area’s canopy.
- Pockets near downtown Gainesville, particularly between NW 6th and NW 9th streets, have also lost 10% or more of their forests.
The loss is transforming the county, Broadbent said.
“The trees here produce some of the largest, most structurally diverse forests anywhere. Just incredible. Beautiful,” said Broadbent, pointing to a grove of oaks. “Once they’re gone, they’re not coming back.”
How local governments protect trees
Even with tree-save policies, overseeing development while protecting local forests is tricky, area leaders say.
For most developments, the county requires that at least 20% of existing tree canopy be preserved for properties greater than two acres, along with protections for wetlands and other sensitive areas. Additional regulations require preservation of up to 25% or even 50% of land in designated habitat areas.
Even with those requirements, impacts are unavoidable, said Jeff Hays, Alachua County’s growth management director.
“It is just sort of the fact of life,” he said. “When we do have development, there’s going to be changes in canopy.”
Like the county, Gainesville has tree-save rules, too. The city’s land development code, for example, requires developers to account for trees before construction begins. Trees measuring 8 inches or more in diameter are protected, with stricter requirements for larger heritage trees.
If developers want to remove them, they must submit surveys identifying the size, location and species of trees on site. Then city staff review whether a project meets the standard of “reasonable development.”
Chelsea Proia, Gainesville’s urban forestry inspector, said deciding what trees to preserve or remove is often shaped by the physical demands of the property and of the development.
Higher density sites often result in more tree loss, she said.
“There has to be a balance,” Proia said. “They have to be able to remove some stuff to build, and sometimes it is a high-quality tree.”
When clearing appears extensive, city officials say many of the trees removed are shorter-lived or lower-quality species, such as laurel oaks or loblolly pines.
Developers are also required to offset tree loss. Under Gainesville’s code, that can mean replanting trees onsite or paying into a fund used to plant and maintain trees elsewhere in the city.
Smaller trees are often replaced at a two-for-one rate, while larger heritage trees are assessed using a formula based on size and quality.
Paying into the city’s mitigation fund can be costly. The fee’s goal is to encourage preservation, though large builders see it as a part of the overall project cost, Proia said, with some developers having paid millions to clear a lot.
Between fiscal year 2019 through fiscal year 2024, the most recent year of available data, builders paid more than $10 million into Gainesville’s tree mitigation fund, records show.
Developers of an 18-acre multi-family apartment site near I-75 and Southwest 20th Avenue – which saw a drastic decrease in canopy coverage in recent years – paid nearly $300,000 into the mitigation fund in 2022, records show.
Starting Downtown, the Duckpond
One of the first stops on Broadbent’s two-hour tour was The Duckpond, a historic neighborhood situated just north of downtown.
The neighborhood is known for its moss-draped oak trees that tower over roads and homes, much different than newer developments that clear entire forests.
“You basically feel like you’re living in a forest,” Broadbent said
For residents like Gracie Wiley, that canopy shapes everyday life.
“Most of the roads are shaded,” she said “… You’re driving under big trees every day.”
Wiley said the greenery isn’t isolated to a few streets but spread across the neighborhood. Most properties have at least one or two trees in their yard, with some properties holding far more.
That environment creates a quieter, more connected feel, Wiley said. She called the neighborhood “pretty” and “quiet,” a place where people are often outside walking their dogs and interacting with neighbors.
“One time my boyfriend was walking home and made a bouquet of flowers along the way,” Wiley said “… That’s not something you can do in very many neighborhoods.”
Traveling along Williston Road
Heading southwest on Williston Road, Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park and its neighbor Sweetwater Wetlands Park are hard to miss, comprising more than 20,000 acres of protected forest, savanna and wetlands.
Nearby is the Landings, an apartment complex resting in the shade of large trees the developer preserved
“I would like to come over here and give a medal to the owners,” Broadbent said.
An area that includes Sweetwater Wetlands Park and Paynes Prairie lost 1% of its forest since 2017, less than most of the other parts of the county, a WUFT data analysis found.
Scenes from the road mirror the data. Driving along Southwest Archer Road, new developments are interlaced between swaths of old trees and healthy forests.
Tonya Becker, a board member of the Alachua County chapter of the National Audubon Society, stressed that even a 1% change in canopy cover in this area can have environmental consequences.
“I’ve seen a tremendous loss of butterfly species, moths and birds,” Becker said, “The diversity of birds has decreased, as has the number of birds.”
In a region of mostly protected land, a decrease in environmental activity of any kind is alarming, she said. Residents in the southern parts of the county benefit from the health of the ecologically intact forest, Becker said.
As subdivisions crop up, they take away those very benefits that residents have come to expect from their neighborhoods.
Trees filter water and clean the air. They reduce stress and improve mental health. They also provide homes for wildlife and their shade can reduce surface temperatures by more than 20 degrees, research shows.
Driving to Celebration Pointe
Broadbent ended the tour with a showcase of one of Gainesville’s most environmentally tumultuous projects of the last decade — Celebration Pointe.
Celebration Pointe, situated just west of I-75 and Archer Road, markets itself as Gainesville’s premier shopping plaza. The sprawling development is home to shops like Bass Pro Shop and Nike and restaurants like Dave & Busters and Spurrier’s.
But that hasn’t always been the case.
“Celebration Pointe was a giant amazing forest until about 20 years ago,” Broadbent said.
Trees cover about 33% of Celebration Pointe and the surrounding community, data show. The development itself hardly has any.
“This looks like New Mexico,” said Broadbent, pointing to a cleared but undeveloped lot at Celebration Pointe. “How is this Gainesville?”
While the developed area of Celebration Pointe is no longer a vibrant forest, the drivers of the development had to yield some concessions to the county. Most of the area’s canopy is just west of the development, where half of the original forest was preserved, said Hays, the county's growth management director.
“[Celebration Pointe] was developed more densely than it would have in order to preserve the other half,” Hays said.
Preserved in the “other half” is a densely forested and ecologically active portion of the Hogtown Creek strategic ecosystem.
Strategic ecosystems are Alachua County’s designation for protected areas that are intended for preserving and interconnecting wild spaces such as wetlands, forests and prairies.
Cultivating Balance
Alachua County and within it, Gainesville, approach canopy clearing with a tug-of-war mindset, officials and environmentalists say.
On one side are developers, pulling for clear-cutting and construction that extends to the curb.
On the other side are conservationists like Broadbent and Becker — and many area residents — who want limits to what is built, and perhaps more importantly, what is removed.
For Wiley, the Duckpond resident, the challenge isn’t just finding balance. It’s keeping what’s here.
But she’s worried.
“It’s going to be much harder to keep it on the side of green,” Wiley said.
