Australian pines were originally planted in Cocoa Beach to provide windbreaks around citrus groves where Cocoa Isles is now. In the aerial from 1956 below, the rectangular windbreaks can be seen at the arrows.

In the photo below we see an abandoned citrus grove on Kennedy Space Center. Notice the windbreak of Australian pine, and how the citrus trees have been completely overrun by Brazilian pepper. The use of Australian pine as a windbreak to protect citrus is a bad decision that continues to plague us.

In April of 1941 the City Commission voted to start a tree fund to plant Australian pines along AIA. These are clearly visible in the aerial photograph from 1951. By September of 1959 the trees were being removed and replaced with cabbage palms.

Australian pine has shallow roots that rarely penetrate very deep into the soil. Planted in many areas to prevent erosion, this tree actually increases erosion by eliminating native vegetation with deeper roots, or mangroves with roots that absorb wave energy, as seen in the view of Crawford Island. 

Along the shoreline in the Thousand Islands the banks generally erode from beneath the shallow roots of Australian pine until the tree falls over. This is erosion can be seen in this closer view of the previous tree. The bank is actually a couple feet behind the trunk. 

The shallow roots also make these trees prone to wind-throw during storms, as seen in this view. In the next slide we can see that no part of this tree’s roots was deeper than about 20 cm in the soil. Notice that, nearly two years after it was blown over, the tree is still alive. 

Continued with carrotwood Here