Santa Cruz is losing its greenery: environmentalists accuse the authorities of destroying trees.

Santa Cruz is becoming uninhabitable! The city council is destroying the city without explaining why and without showing any reports. People do not understand what is happening to the trees. This was stated by Carmen de la Rosa, head of the environmental group "Trees Speak". Her organization protects green spaces in the city. According to her, about a thousand trees have been cut down in the last two years, although most of them could have been saved.

De la Rosa explained that trees give us oxygen, shade, moisture, purify the air and make the city beautiful. And in Santa Cruz we are losing them! She mentioned how the city council removed seven tulip trees in Orche Square, trees in Garcia Sanabria, La Granja and Viera y Clavijo parks, jacarandas on Puerto Escondido Street, and the recent felling of 17 Indian laurels on the Rambla.

According to her, on June 30, the city council began cutting down these laurels, which are over 80 years old. Officials say they are dead or sick and could fall on passers-by. The works are scheduled to be completed in December, and one million euros have been allocated for this.

But De la Rosa believes these explanations are lies. According to her, only three laurels were dead, and the rest could have been saved. The problem is that the trees have not been cared for for years: they have not been watered, fertilized, or pruned haphazardly. And although they look bad, they are still growing. But the city council decided to simply cut them down without showing any reports or documents.

"When we learned about the felling, we appealed to the city council to stop it and provide us with the reports that we have requested many times. But we never received an answer. Without this information, we cannot file objections or provide reports from our experts to compare whether these trees are really sick," says De la Rosa.

Therefore, several public organizations complained to Seprona about the decision of the city authorities. They recalled that there are laws in Spain and Europe that protect birds that live in cities and reproduce there, as was the case with these laurels. The complaint is being considered by the Civil Guard. Activists plan to contact them again to find out what happened to the report and whether the city council will be punished for treating trees like ordinary furniture, without taking care of them. According to activists, no one believes the officials anymore. In addition, they are violating the law on transparency and the Aarhus Convention, which obliges authorities to provide information on environmental issues.

Environmentalists believe that the city council is destroying trees because the mayor and councilors do not understand how important it is. "They have learned a few phrases about a green Santa Cruz, but it's just ridiculous. The city council has given parks and gardens to contractors who only think about money. They save on the maintenance of large trees, let them die, and then take money for felling and planting new trees, which are also not taken care of," says the environmentalist.

Ana Mendoza, head of the association for the restoration of the Viera y Clavijo Cultural Park, is also outraged by the state of the trees in the park. According to her, trees are being cut down there due to restoration work. "We have photographs showing that species have disappeared since the start of the work. In particular, we know about seven palm trees and two cypresses that grew near the entrance. They were allowed to die after 50 years in excellent condition," she says.