About 3,500 trees. That is the number of specimens that the Murcia City Council plans to plant throughout the municipality during this year 2023. In shirt sleeves, sleeves rolled up and hoe in hand, the mayor of the capital, José Antonio Serrano, presented this Tuesday, the municipal reforestation plans, almost as a response to the criticism launched from both the opposition, as well as the platforms opposed to the mobility plan and conservation entities, such as Huermur, to the felling of trees carried out in recent months.
These specimens will be planted under the macro-contract signed with the awardee of the Parks and Gardens Service –STV-Actúa–, closed in 2019 by the previous government, which must be renewed at the end of this year, a ball that will fall on the roof of those who are tenants of La Glorieta after the elections next May. This award included the placement of 15,000 new trees, an amount that with the replacement of removed specimens will come close to 20,000. In fact, of the 3,500 specimens that will have to take root this year, almost 1,350 correspond to replacements and a third already shine on roads and green areas of the municipality, with 217 in the capital and the rest in districts.
More than half a thousand remain to be replaced, highlighting, by numbers, the 102 in El Esparragal, 82 in Churra -the majority in Nueva Condomina-, 73 in Guadalupe, 39 in El Puntal, 19 in Vista Alegre, 18 in La Paz, 16 in Santa María de Gracia, 15 in Espinardo, 11 in El Palmar, 11 in Santiago and Zaraiche, 9 in El Infante and La Flota, respectively, and 8 -by three- in San Miguel, San Basilio and San Antón.
To these will be added the almost 2,200 improvement units that remain until the total expected for the entire year is reached. The latter are those that will be planted in areas where there were no trees before -public roads, gardens, schools…- and that will be distributed, clarify municipal sources, among other places in areas such as the end of Juan de Borbón avenue – Octavio Paz street-, Churra, the Southeast Logistics Park, Corvera, Montevida, La Alberca, the Tirocosa garden and other areas of Espinardo and Puebla de Soto, thus increasing the public tree heritage, mainly in neighborhoods and districts. In addition, the garden of the Three Cups, in La Flota, will be repopulated in the coming weeks.
It continues to bet on common species such as the border orange, mulberry or cypress, without forgetting the controversial jacarandas
However, they warn from the service that the planting work will be paralyzed between the end of March and the beginning of April, since the high temperatures, -above 30 degrees- do not ensure the proper development and survival of the newly planted specimens. , which are at risk of drying out in these conditions. Therefore, after the equator of spring, it is advisable to postpone the work at least until October.
It must also be remembered, regarding the repopulation areas, that opening new tree pits in the center of the city poses difficulties due to the lack of space, according to the municipal officials, since the Green Zones ordinance and the accessibility requirements prevent planting trees on sidewalks that do not have a minimum width of three meters and requires up to six to place a large specimen.
adapted species
On the other hand, the same sources highlighted that the norm is to choose for this repopulation species adapted to a climate like Murcia, of a dry nature, and that do not, therefore, have great water needs. A bet of the competent municipal service has been, for example, betting in recent years on hackberries, without forgetting the traditional bordered orange trees, cypresses or the typical white mulberry trees. The jacarandas, fast-growing trees and good shade, are not neglected either, but they tend to arouse suspicion among the neighbors due to the resinous trail that their flowers usually leave.
“Here, in Marqués de los Vélez, where we have planted another 16 trees, you are seeing, for example, an olive tree brought from the Mayayo municipal nurseries,” explained the alderman. However, from the Parks and Gardens Service they explain that these facilities have lost part of their usefulness, since today it is cheaper to buy the specimens from private suppliers than to produce them by their own means. “Given the circumstances, we are committed to converting the nurseries, in the future, into an urban forest,” explains the head of the Municipal Parks and Gardens Service, Enrique Huelves.
“From March 2021 to today we have planted 14,219 trees in the municipality, a figure that represents an increase of more than 12,000 new specimens compared to the period in which the Popular Party governed,” justified Mayor Serrano. However, official figures say that since the start of last year, Parks and Gardens have cut down more than 300 units, not counting the other 300 samples of the municipality’s tree heritage eliminated on account of the mobility plan.
“Let the weight of the law fall on those who felled the eucalyptus”
“We want the full weight of the law to fall on that company.” This is how the mayor, José Antonio Serrano, referred to the felling of the “centenary” eucalyptus -according to the residents- that presided over, next to the industrial chimney, the parking area of La Molinera, in Barriomar. The councilor reiterated, given the public uproar caused by this ‘arboricide’, that “the developer company that cut it did so without any municipal permission, for which a file has been opened”. On the other hand, he justified the felling linked to the bike and bus lane projects to the “need to improve mobility, which requires some remodeling.” «We will replace some 350, planting, for example, in Primo de Rivera, Díez de Revenga or Ronda, even creating medians.
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