Refreshing neighborhoods, beautifying streets, encouraging the development of biodiversity… The value of trees no longer needs to be proven. The smallest cuts of chestnut trees and other plane trees arouse strong opposition in the population. Anxious to show that it takes the subject seriously, the territorial public establishment (EPT) Est Ensemble officially launches this Tuesday a “Tree Plan” on its territory.
By the end of the mandate in 2026, 20,000 specimens will be planted in 500 places spread over its nine municipalities. From this Tuesday, 22 snags from Canada, hybrid oaks from Spain and honey locusts from America will thus take up residence in the park of the city of Courtillières, in Pantin (Seine-Saint-Denis).
“In total, 20 million euros will be invested”
A measure at the heart of the Local Citizens’ Convention for the Climate which brought together, between September 2021 and the spring of 2022, 100 inhabitants of this territory who worked on the solutions to be provided to fight against global warming at the scale of the territory. “The purpose of this Tree Plan is to adapt to the consequences of climate change because we know that trees play a very important role in regulating in the event of a heat wave”, underlines Patrice Bessac, the president (PCF) of Est Ensemble.
Still, the possibilities of plantations are sometimes limited because of the various networks that abound under the roads. Difficulties that the community intends to tackle in order to be able to introduce species everywhere. “In total, 20 million euros will be invested, specifies Patrice Bessac. We will take care of the tree, the digging of the pit and also all the deviations of the networks necessary to plant in places which are not necessarily plantable today. »
In the coming weeks, the EPT will first green places that do not require major work: the Bagnolet cemetery, rue Rabelais in Bobigny – where trees had recently had to be cut -, the hotel park of town in Bondy, square Jean-Moulin in Pré-Saint-Gervais, square Lucie-Aubrac in Lilas, Romain-Rolland school in Montreuil, square de Neuilly in Noisy-le-Sec and the Marcel-Cachin housing estate in Romainville. The plantations will then continue regularly until the end of the mandate.
Prioritize the diversity of species
“We are really on a plan that will benefit all sectors: roads, schools, cemeteries, squares, public landlords. We will also launch a system to support plantations in private condominiums, ”describes Patrice Bessac. About fifty different species will be planted. “The idea is to no longer have long avenues of chestnut or chestnut trees. These alignments of the same species which means that if there is a disease, the trees are all sick at the same time”, he adds.
This summer, in Montreuil, the cutting of around thirty chestnut trees on avenue Gabriel-Péri – a departmental road – had thus aroused the anger of local residents. The county council had explained that the specimens were in danger of collapsing and announced that 75 trees would soon be replanted there. “For the new plantations of the Tree plan, we will favor varieties that are able to provide shade quickly and adapt to climate change, explains the elected official. Trees that resist well to heat and lack of water. »
A plan which is added to the 2,200 trees also to be planted along the promenade of the Heights which will connect the Buttes-Chaumont park, in Paris, to Fontenay-sous-Bois (Val-de-Marne), via seven towns in Est Ensemble (Le Pré-Saint-Gervais, Pantin, Les Lilas, Romainville, Noisy-le-Sec, Bagnolet and Montreuil) and Rosny-sous-Bois.
The nine municipalities of Est Ensemble: Bagnolet, Bobigny, Bondy, Les Lilas, Le Pré-Saint-Gervais, Montreuil, Noisy-le-Sec, Pantin, Romainville.
