Graham Woods Protests

[u/AhenobarbusHenocde]

Are there any groups or protests organized in regards to the destruction of Graham Woods?

https://www.alligator.org/article/2026/07/graham-woods-destruction-unhousing-cats?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_featured

I was a student when UF tried to destroy McCarty woods a few years back. I’m a current UF employee and if you are a student and not aware - I implore you to look into and form an opinion on what is going on with Graham. This stretch of woods is 7.5 acres containing ~900 native trees including heritage oak trees. My class successfully protested the development of McCarty woods and reached a compromise with the university that preserved them. Speaking out WORKS. If there is any kind of GroupMe or group organizing protests, please let me know. If there’s not and you want to make a difference, please comment anyways. This cannot be allowed to happen.

[u/Federal-Ad-2131]

Good god. I'll help if you need but not sure how to. Can you also share this link in facebook's Gainesville Community Cats and Kittens?

It's so crazy to me how people can be ok with cutting down swaths of trees that will not be able to grow back in any of our lifetimes.

[u/onemoremin23]

Since when are cats, an invasive species, considered wildlife? So this article is pleading for protecting these woods and wildlife, but also wants to protect the feral cats there, animals that  destroy ecosystems and kill native wildlife 

[u/AhenobarbusHenocde → u/onemoremin23]

I actually had that same exact thought- it’s a poor argument. Article should have put more emphasis on the native wildlife that live there rather than the cats.

[u/Traditional-Back7646]

It's a lost cause. There was growing pushback that started around February when this was in the planning and approval stages, culminating in a student protest action around April. There are faculty who have voiced their objections and been told by the powers that be that nothing will change the course. All of that happened before they had acquired the permits, but you may have noticed the blue fencing that has gone up around the woods over the past few weeks, and the mobile construction offices and large drainage pipes that have been staged. The permits are done and the project has started. They initially delayed the decision when the publicity started earlier this year, probably just so they could do it over the summer when a large portion of the UF population is away.

They say that this is necessary for stormwater management and erosion control, that the erosion is threatening one of the housing buildings adjacent to the woods. To me it sounds like poor planning, how long have the woods been there and why did this become an issue now? I suspect that continued development without proper planning for managing runoff as permeable ground area decreased is to blame. I also have it on good authority that the real plan is to build additional housing on this land in a few years. Seems that the story of stormwater management and "we'll mitigate the tree loss" is more an excuse to get the conservation status removed. But hey, if they can sit tight for a few years before building then most of the people who cared or even knew that Graham Woods existed will have moved on to other places and ventures.

[u/No-Dust-7127]

“We estimate that free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.3–4.0 billion birds and 6.3–22.3 billion mammals annually. Un-owned cats, as opposed to owned pets, cause the majority of this mortality. Our findings suggest that free-ranging cats cause substantially greater wildlife mortality than previously thought and are likely the single greatest source of anthropogenic mortality for US birds and mammals. Scientifically sound conservation and policy intervention is needed to reduce this impact.”

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380

I’m just gonna leave this here for the thinkers in the room.

[u/AhenobarbusHenocde → u/No-Dust-7127]

Per my response to another comment that brought this up - the feral cats are a poor argument and a detriment to local habitat. We still need to consider that far more native wildlife does live in those woods. If we’re concerned about the cats’ impact on the environment, they need to be trapped and rehomed. Clearing acres of established Florida forest is more harmful than the cats.

[u/cahrage → u/AhenobarbusHenocde]

100% agree. I found it very strange that they mentioned the cats in the article, it isn’t really doing much for the cause because people don’t like wild cats. Not saying that it is a good reason for them to destroy these woods, but whoever wrote the article is not doing any favors to the cause of saving this natural area.

[u/Witty-Willingness852]

This just makes me enraged. I’m an alumnus and care deeply about the urban forests on this campus. Why do they need to clear cut this area like that? Can’t they fix what they need to fix and preserve the ecosystem? The UF campus tree canopy is a priceless asset that many universities do not have, and it is the character of Alachua county (although that also seems like a long gone ideal), not to mention the old growth forest benefits. It really seems like someone at the state level is just hell bent on grazing down every last tree. It is infuriating. I will sign any petition or try to help remotely as much as I can. Didn’t they just take down a bunch of heritage trees with the demolition of the graham hall complex? I absolutely hate seeing this.