According to a recent survey, the trees in San Rafael, Mendoza are facing a critical situation.
Between the dry weather conditions, deterioration due to age, and lack of maintenance, a critical point has been reached.
This was warned by the Regional Council for the Defense of Public Trees this week. What can be done and what measures are already being taken.
The critical situation of trees in San Rafael
Engineer Raúl Besa, a member of the Council, provided details about the delicate situation and context.
“If it were a patient, the tree population would be in a critical situation, tending towards severe, due to the intense deforestation of recent years for various circumstances and causes,” he explained in an interview with Diario San Rafael and FM Vos 94.5.
The specialist emphasized that deforestation is the consequence of various factors, “including lack of irrigation and widespread lack of maintenance.”
He explained, “irrigation is essential, especially through irrigation ditches in the city, where the situation is more complicated than in rural irrigation channels, where water usually flows at least once a week.”
He also stressed that “one of the main problems in the city is the lack of irrigation and, secondly, public and private works that do not comply with current regulations.”
“When sidewalks or drains are paved, the regulations establish that every five to eight meters a niche or space for trees must be respected, but this is often not fulfilled,” he said.
“In some sidewalks, they are completely impermeable after work, without leaving the necessary space for tree growth,” he pointed out.
What can be done
trees to combat drought[/caption>
Faced with this situation, Besa demanded stricter control of works. “A final work certification should not be issued until the tree population that has been eliminated is reforested or restored,” he emphasized.
The Regional Council for the Defense of Public Trees has managed to advance in a collaboration agreement with the Provincial Directorate of Highways.
This is to start reforestation and removal of trees in poor condition on provincial roads.
The agreement was signed on April 25 and will allow the start of a project that will begin on three streets in the Cuadro Benegas district: El Moro, La Palma, and Belgrano street.
Besa especially highlighted the collaboration of the Biodiversity Directorate, formerly the Directorate of Natural Resources, for the identification of at-risk specimens.
