You may have noticed fewer trees when driving through the greater Tampa Bay region.
Perhaps not surprisingly, hurricanes are to blame.
A study presented to the Tampa City Council last week reported a 4.8% decrease in the city’s tree canopy following the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season.
Researchers said the canopy dropped from 31.4% in 2024 to 29.9% in 2025 – a total loss of about 1,200 acres.
Most of the damage, according to the report, stems from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and occurred in areas where wind and rainfall were at their peak.
University of South Florida anthropology researcher Rebecca Zarger said the damage was extensive. She singled out 22nd Street Park along the Hillsborough River as an example.
“I went myself to some of the deposit areas where tree debris was being taken,” she said. “There (was) more than one football field full of tree trunks and debris on a massive scale, many feet high, as a result of the storm.”
A similar report presented to the St. Petersburg City Council showed 6% of that city’s trees were knocked down during the hurricanes. In total, St. Petersburg’s tree canopy dropped from 29% in 2024 to 27% in 2025. The city’s goal is 30%.
The USF team asked Tampa residents about their thoughts on having trees throughout the city.
88.4% of respondents said they believe their benefits outweigh their risks, and 89.7% said they would like to see more trees planted across Tampa.
But Zarger noted that only a fraction of those surveyed experienced tree damage.
“Although one in five people who participated in our study lost a tree, 79% did not experience structural damage as a result of that loss,” she said. “For a large degree of people who participated in the study, there was no major structural damage as a result of those trees or large branches coming down.”
Zarger added that those who responded negatively expressed concern about cost.
“One of the questions that we asked was how much people spent on cleanup and repair after the 2024 Hurricane Season,” she said. “And we found that, on average, people spent over $3,000, whether that was for the cleanup of small debris or hiring a company to come and remove a tree from their property that had fallen.”
Going forward, Tampa will continue carrying out two planting programs to address the loss.
The Tree-Mendous program plants about 500 trees per year and has planted 1,210 since 2023.
Tampa’s other planting program, ReLeaf, has scheduled 11 projects and is expected to plant over 3,000 trees over the next few years.
