By Nick Williams
nwilliams@bradenton.com
LAKEWOOD RANCH -- Lakewood Ranch director of operations Ryan Heise gave me a tour of Lakewood Ranch on Wednesday.
In two hours, we covered some of the 5,000-plus acre area.
From Edgewater to Country Club, to Summerfield to Green Cove, I saw the lakes, the golf courses, the parks and trails and recreation areas.
At every corner it seemed there was a maintenance worker busy performing some task. So I asked Heise how many workers are needed to maintain Lakewood Ranch. His response was surprising.
Heise said between the two service providers contracted to help maintain the landscaping, along with the 20 or so staff members employed by Lakewood Ranch, around 40 people, on a daily basis, are needed to for upkeep.
To put it in perspective, there are 25 to 30 species of trees and palms in Lakeland Ranch and most of them need to be treated, trimmed and pruned.
There are hundreds of species of plants, all of which need care. Heise spoke of an area known to the staff as “three miles”, a stretch of curb and street that must be edged for the length of three miles. There is fence at least a quarter mile long that must be power washed, piece by piece.
I told Heise it sounds similar to a staff running a large amusement park.
Welcome to Lakewood Ranch, certainly a wonder of our local world.
For a bit of video from that tour:
//www.bradenton.com/news-video/#navlinks=subnav
Opting for more natural xeriscaping would greatly reduce the manpower, fertilizer, and water needed to keep the public areas looking good. Landscape designers have done more harm to our ecology than Mosaic. And that's saying something.
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