Más del 80% de los árboles trasplantados en Montecarmelo han fallecido

On April 9th, the Madrid City Council began the transplantation of trees from the ground they occupied in the designated lands for the Montecarmelo district to another plot.

Back then, the mayor denied that this signified the start of construction for the cleaning service buildings and stated that the trees were being moved because it was the appropriate time to do so.

Three months later, most of the trees are either dead or dying. The figures are as follows: there were 207 affected trees, 104 trees were directly cut down, and of the 103 transplanted trees, at least 70 are dead or dying.

The data comes from a report by Ecologists in Action and Fernando Gómez Gavira, a forestry engineer. The report details the actions taken during the transplantation that led to the demise of the trees. Insufficient root balls and watering or soil quality are some of the identified issues.

The failure to transfer the uprooted trees to a nursery also contributed to their downfall, something that has been rectified in the case of tree removal for the Santa Ana Square works.

María Torrens, spokesperson for the Montecarmelo Neighborhood Association and co-author of the report, demands the «reinstatement of the trees in the same place in the quantity and quality stipulated by the 2005 Law of the Community of Madrid in the same location they were uprooted from, as well as the relocation to an industrial area of the truck, machinery, and garbage center that destroyed this forest.”