Little fern damage from road repairs

The department is responsible for all the public gardens in Jamaica, as well as Holland Bamboo and Fern Gully.

He said while work on the ferns in the upper section of the famed tourist attraction continues, the Gardens' team goes through the area being repaired once a week. "In the beginning, I went there and saw some empty cement bags on the ferns," Ramdon said. He spoke to the road-repair team and "there has been nothing since that time".

Inevitably, some of the ferns get dislocated during the road repair process, and Ramdon said, "if they are paring the banking, they pick up the ferns and put them to one side, then the workers will go though and replant. There will be some damage, but I don't think it will be much".

The road closure to facilitate the repairs has naturally reduced the amount of motor-vehicle exhaust in Fern Gully. Ramdon has had first-hand experience of the overpowering fumes in Fern Gully and notes that the equipment being used for the road repair produces far less exhaust gases than regular traffic.

Ruby Byfield, who supervises the Gardens' team working in Fern Gully, confirmed that the weekly visits to maintain the ferns have not revealed much damage. "If I see any garbage on the ferns, I ask them to remove it," she said.

"I really have not had any problem. So far, so good."

When the road repairs are finished, the Gardens' team will resume regular work along the entire Fern Gully.

The road through Fern Gully was established in the early 1900s. Over 300 species of ferns grow on the hills on either side of the nearly three-mile stretch of road.