The revision of the landscape designs of squares, parks and streets in the urban sector is a trend that has been taken more and more seriously in most of the country. The reason is always the same: to deal with water crises and reduce as far as possible the proliferation of exotic species to avoid phytosanitary pests that affect the health of public trees.
Another of the considerations that have influenced this process points to the age of some species and that, due to falls or detachment of branches, in Chillán two fatal accidents have been lamented in recent years and in the heart of the city.
Given the need to have an increasing number of trees to plant in the commune, the option of creating a municipal nursery, only with native species and supplying this requirement with its own production, was consolidated within the Municipal Council.
The mayor, Camilo Benavente, commented to the councilors that progress had already been made in a rapprochement with the University of Concepción regarding some land exchanges, which would ensure the council have a property for the cultivation process.
“It is a piece of land that is inside the university and what they are asking us for in exchange is a piece of land, as a loan or exchange, that the Municipality has on Vicente Méndez and Paul Harris streets, on a corner in front of Shell Asturias” , explained the communal chief.
For the president of the Environment Commission, councilor Ricardo Valdebenito, this is a low-cost initiative, which projects a high positive impact in the medium and long term “and we have already seen that in communes such as La Granja, Lo Espejo or Los Angeles, where they have nurseries. The residents of some neighborhoods are always asking us for trees and the truth is that we don’t have them, so I consider it very important to have our own nursery”.
The Chillán Reforestation Plan began in April of this year, only with native species, which among other qualities stand out for their considerably lower water consumption than other exotic species that, almost as a tradition, have settled in each town or neighborhood new in town.
That is why in the commune construction companies have already been prohibited from planting specimens such as birch or sweetgum, which grow fast but consume more water.
“A municipal nursery also contributes to the conservation of biodiversity, to beautify the squares, it would help us reduce critical episodes of air pollution, because it is more than proven that trees lower pollution levels,” added the mayor.
Three thousand trees in Chillán Viejo
The mayor of Chillán Viejo, Jorge del Pozo, does not skimp on praise for the results of the municipal nursery that they created in 2021. Just as a hard fact, he explains that more than three thousand copies have already been delivered to neighborhood councils, close to 900 minor species and “now we have even been delivering leaf soil.”
Among the species “that arrived as small sideburns, but after a year they were ready to be planted in streets, parks and squares, we have quillayes, peumos, maquis, rhododendrons, privet, honeysuckle, and many other native species. We currently have two warehouses of approximately one hundred square meters each”
