The UF Lakes, Vegetation and Landscaping Committee voted Feb. 5 to delay action on the Graham Stormwater Improvement Project, citing concerns about the scale of tree removal.
The project would remove an estimated 947 trees, including 67 designated as heritage trees. The designation applies to trees of notable size, shape or importance.
In the Feb. 5 meeting, committee member Adam Dale, a UF entomology associate professor, called it “one of, if not the biggest tree removal projects that has come to our committee.”
The project is intended to address persistent drainage problems caused by an aging stormwater system, according to a Lake Alice Watershed Study presented in 2024.
Fifteen drainage pipes currently run through the 7.5-acre Graham Woods area, located between Flavet Field and Gale Lemerand Drive. The pipes contribute to erosion and steep drop-offs that have forced the university to close portions of the site to pedestrians.
The Graham Stormwater Improvement Project would replace damaged pipes and add manholes to help drain runoff. It would create two connected stormwater ponds to slow water flow and improve its quality as it flows downstream toward Lake Alice.
The proposal also includes recreational and educational trails, project manager Kate Farmer said.
“It would be good for our professors and students to have some additional learning opportunities, and ecological classes could be held out there or in helping students understand our stormwater management, which is a big problem that we have on campus,” Farmer said. “So we are trying to improve that with this project.”
But committee members worried about one major aspect of the project: tree removal.
Farmer and her team estimate construction would require removing almost 1,000 trees, including 67 heritage trees. The list of heritage trees slated for removal includes 12 maple trees, 12 hickories and 10 southern magnolias, as well as several others.
Trees around the site’s perimeter would be preserved, and the proposal includes plans for replanting and increasing biodiversity.
The mitigation fee, which landscapers must pay to account for any tree removals, is $455,500.
Kristin Rubin, representing the Sierra Club Suwannee-St. John’s group, said the scale of the tree removal for the project would offset attempts to resolve stormwater issues.
“We may be removing the very living infrastructure that already does much of that work,” she said. “These heritage trees are not landscaping. They are stormwater assets.”
Tree removal is common in campus construction projects, and the committee reviewed several smaller proposals earlier in the meeting.
Those included the removal of a 30-inch nagi podocarpus for the new Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education campus and two 23-inch live oaks for the Microbiology and Cell Science building expansion.
But for many, the scale of this removal is unprecedented.
Last year, the committee approved a project that removed 30 trees. An online petition in favor of stopping the project garnered 157 signatures.
The committee decided to table the Graham Woods project until its next meeting March 5 in order to allow members to review additional information.
Lisa Strange, an IFAS extension agent, made the motion to hold off on a decision.
“This is overwhelming,” she said. “It's such a massive project.”
Contact Juliana DeFilippo at jdefillipo@alligator.org. Follow her on X @JulianaDeF58101.
Juliana is a second-year journalism student and the Spring 2026 Enterprise environment reporter. This is her fourth semester on The Alligator, and she previously served as an Avenue reporter and the Fall 2025 Avenue editor. In her free time, she loves reading, updating her Letterboxd account and doing crosswords.
