Soller to replace diseased trees

Removing part of a dead tree this summer.

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterSoller11/11/2017 00:00

Soller town hall is planning a progressive substitution of trees on municipal land. A report commissioned by the town hall has found that the vast majority of trees have some from of disease. There is no evidence, though, of the xylella bacterium.

The councillor for the environment, Pep Lluís Puig, wants there to be a citizen's debate about the substitution. Some of the trees are a hundred or more years old and can pose a problem. This was the case with the banana trees in the Plaça Constitució, which needed to be pruned drastically to prevent them possibly toppling over.

The trees which have so far been studied are the ones in the square and in another, Plaça Espanya, as well in Camp de s'Oca and along the calle Sa Mar. Infections have been caused by fungi and insects.

Proposed replacements for banana and mulberry trees include linden trees and sycamores. By the end of the current administration, Puig says that all the infirm trees in the Plaça Constitució will have been removed.