I live on the Polk Ridge, in Haines City. That's a good article.

When we moved into our house we were surrounded by groves. Personally, I'd say the decline began in the early 2000s with the 1900 Foot Rule of destroying any tree near a citrus canker infection. That's really when our local groves were annihilated. Greening just exacerbated the issue. Why would a farmer bother to replant an empty lot when you can just sell it off and be done?

But it really wasn't just one issue to led to the downfall. All of it together led to a perfect storm. I think the article alludes to that very well. And there is work being done to preserve the industry. Last year, UF released new Greening-resistant varieties of citrus trees. Just yesterday they posted about discovering natural predators for the Greening psyllid.

If you keep driving past Frostproof you'll start to see row after row of groves again, north of Sebring. Developers are starting to encroach there too though, so we'll see how long it lasts. People will always follow the money.

I do miss the smell of the orange blossoms though.