When two one-hundred-year-old ficus trees were uprooted in Balzan last week to widen the road, without much of a heads-up, some residents were infuriarted by the move, holding a vigil for the trees and even spurring on a national demonstation for the environment, which is happening today.
The Balzan local council hadsaid the trees' roots were damaging road infrastructure., however, residents feel that more discussion could have found ways of finding a compromise to fix the road and keep the trees.
Some people also argued that such a fuss should not be made about two trees being removed just because they are a 'landmark' of the village, especially in light of the controversial Rabat road saga which hit the headlines in the same week.
However, for Balzan residents and other aggrivated citizens, the incident was about more than losing a landmark, and, rather, opened a can of worms on larger issues, such as lack of public consultation and consideration for urban agriculture, as well as a feeling of disregard for the environment on a larger scale.
The uprooting was only one in a series of controversial acts involving trees which made the headlines in the past few weeks. However, since the trees were placed right in the heart of the village, it is no wonder that it hit so close to home… literally.
Inhabitants around the village of Balzan explained what their whole frustration was really about, arguing that uprooting of the trees was a microcosm of sorts of more important principles.
Trees as being beneficial to the urban environment
"I like greenery and work in agriculture and I know the benefits of trees in urban greenery. Ok, trees take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, but to do that they need to be where carbon dioxide is being produced, in order to reduce the impact of pollution. And also, the large leafy crown acts as a sort of insulation. It dampens noise, while stones and concrete almost form an echo chamber, so the sound is increased...Of course there were only two trees, if you had a whole row of trees it would be much better, but at least you had those two.
It is also the principle though, the fact that we need trees, and we have to acknowledge that they are useful, because removing them means we can remove any other tree near the road. There are people who say 'they are just two', but there are another five (in the same road), so if they are going to remove trees just because they damage the services in the road, they will remove the others as well."
- Antoine, Balzan resident and agriculture veteran
The lack of public consultation and public dialogue
"For myself and some residents they were important as landmarks, and they are important for birds, as they are a roosting site for sparrows. From an environmental and cultural point of view those are my reasons.
..My bone of contention though is related to the public consultation aspect. I know that the road needed resurfacing, but I feel that they (the authorities) should have been more open and not givenonly one week of notice that the road was going to be resurfaced. One should not see these infrastrucutral projects from the perspective of a car driver, especially within a residential area, stakeholders need to be involved.
I'm a little bit disappointed how it turned out, and the reaction from people. In Malta we tend to polarise everything, so if I have an opinion it is either labelled as good or bad and there is no argumentation or critical thought or rational argumentation, so you are labelled black or white or as part of a party or trying to antagonise authorities, which blocks the whole discussion, you cannot move forward in a discussion this way."
- Raffaela, manager at Gabriel Caruana Foundation, and environmental and conservation manager by profession
Need for more nature as country develops
"I am annoyed that things are being done in a rush, I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be reading about trees being chopped down in the news. We have a concrete jungle as it is and we need more greenery, not to remove the little greenery that we have left.. the country looks so much more beautiful (with nature), the trees give us oxygen, they are a lung, and they beautify the place, I cannot understand how even that is being blatantly removed.
When you have new buildings being built you would try to plant more greenery to compensate for the starkness of the building. Also, how can one replace these age-old trees which have become part of our lives, with a sappling?"
- Anita Gollcher, resident
To retain the character of a village
"We are very much in favour of trees in Rabat road remaining where they are because of the benefits of trees. But with these, it is about Balzan retatining its character. They can be described as iconic, they gave character to that area of balzan, so it is removing some of the character of the trees, removing the character of the village.
When we first heard the minister and mayor speak and they announced that balzan valley is going to be resurfaced we were delighted, that road is a big problem, its bumpy all along, but when we heard the two trees are going to be removed it was shocking.
There are a number of experts in balzan who could have given feedback on how the road can be done to retain the character and the trees could have acted as a calming traffic measure and to mitigate some of the air problems that the traffic contains.
For the shops, people who live there and have children there, they needed to keep the trees there. the good side of it is that the trees remained with us, but they have been butchered and taken to a place not appropriate for them, which has indigenous trees and is already too crowded."
Matthew Borg Cardona, resident
An elderly man who lived near the trees shows a painting of one of the trees, gifted to him by a friend of his, an artist, years ago. He said how he would wake up to the sound of the birds every day, and that morning when the trees were chopped, he went out to find the birds baffled flying around the branches.
One of the ficus trees uprooted.
Residents light candles for the trees and talk about the incident.
Freshly-laid concrete covers the area where the trees were uprooted.
from The Malta Independent https://ift.tt/2tOwmml
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