PHOTOS: Sergio Betancort.
The Environment Service of the Cabildo of Lanzarote has now reported that "in past months, at the request of the City Council of San Bartolomé, it authorized the elimination of thirteen specimens of Canary palm trees (Phoenix Canariensis), as they were found to be severely infected by Diocalandra frumenti (Fabricius) and parasitized with insects and fungi."
According to the Cabildo, "this disease of the palm grove caused advanced deterioration and significant weakening in these specimens" that were located in Playa Honda, in the domain strip located between the Deiland shopping center and the service road of the LZ-2 highway (Arrecife-Playa Blanca).
"To avoid the existing danger of collapse and the fall of the same on the road or roads through which hundreds of vehicles and people circulate daily, as well as the plague spreading to the municipality of Arrecife, the Environment Service of the Cabildo of Lanzarote - after the corresponding inspection - transferred to the City Council of San Bartolomé a favorable compatibility report of the felling and elimination of these specimens", they now explain from the Ministry coordinated by Mónica Álvarez.
Likewise, the Roads Service of the Department of Public Works of the Institution, dependent on José Antonio Gutiérrez, proceeded to issue a favorable report for this same cause and for the "serious danger of collapse on the goods and people circulating on the LZ-2".
Warnings from the shopping center
Although the authorization was given "in past months", according to the Cabildo, it has been "in these days" when the City Council "notified" the start of the works, which were actually carried out last week. The Cabildo has also pointed out that the felling of the palm trees "has been carried out with the financial collaboration of the Deiland shopping center, who already in their day, together with affected residents of the area, informed the City Council of the existing risk of falling palm trees in the vicinity of the shopping center and highway, which could lead to a tragedy."
The Minister of the Environment of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Mónica Álvarez, maintains that "the safety of the people who circulate through this very busy area of the island has prevailed, since the relevant assessments have been carried out by the technical services of the Institution and any other type of solution that would allow saving these specimens has been ruled out as unfeasible." Likewise, details the Minister of the Environment, "it will be avoided that the plague spreads to the rest of the palm trees that are in the municipal area of Arrecife and thus the affectation and the risk of falling or collapse to other areas is extended."
Álvarez affirms that the Cabildo, through the Department of Public Works and the Environment, "is carrying out periodic inspections and treatments by Diocalandra throughout the island, for which it allocated a total item, during this 2012, for the phytosanitary treatment of the palm trees of 145,000 euros".
