Barcelona City Council is now regularly watering more than 900 date palms once a week suspected of having the same problems as the one that collapsed on Thursday last week after splitting in the Raval neighborhood. Then a 20-year-old girl died.
Irrigation is an exceptional measure. In Barcelona trees are not normally watered. At this time, everything indicates that the most plausible cause of that accident was the lack of water. Perhaps the fateful palm tree of the Raval was dry, perhaps that is why it broke in half and collapsed… The government of mayor Jaume Collboni does not want to take risks. The matter is unleashing great public concern.
Joan Guitart, director of the wooded area of ??the Parcs i Jardins municipal institute, detailed this Wednesday that the researchers are considering the confluence of three factors in this fatal event: the narrowing of the upper part of the trunk, a nest of parrots in the crown and drought, lack of water, water stress…
In fact, in recent months, in a few towns on the Catalan and Valencian coast, several cases of sudden breaks and collapse of palm trees have already been recorded. Fortunately in those cases no one died.
“An external company is preparing a study to determine the final cause of this collapse,” added the municipal manager of the trees. Meanwhile, the Town Hall is inspecting and watering the 912 date palms that somehow present these three factors. We already reviewed about a hundred. Until now the most plausible hypothesis to explain the collapse of the Raval is that of a lack of water”.
As a result of these extraordinary revisions that have been carried out since Saturday, eight specimens have already been felled. Apparently these date palms complied with the security parameters established by the City Council, but given that they moved at levels similar to those of the Raval palm, the technicians opted for the most drastic measures.
The tests that are being carried out basically consist of measuring the taper, taking a look at the nest of the crown and then grabbing a branch and pulling it to make the palm tree in question dance. If the specimen sways freely and does not show tension, everything is going well.
The technicians then hit the trunk several times with a mallet to confirm its solidity. Each copy requires the attention of three technicians for one hour. It all depends on the number of chicks in the nest. The technicians have to remove them while they carry out the corresponding tests.
The 12,000 palm trees in Barcelona undergo these oscillation tests every two years, and those that raise doubts are specially monitored. This is how it has been done since the summer of 2020, after a 41-year-old man died when a date palm fell on him in the Ciutadella park. The City Council assures that the Raval palm tree never raised doubts, that it always passed all inspections.
And yesterday, while the technicians proceeded to carry out these extraordinary tests on the specimen arranged in the Pes de la Palla square, next to the Sant Antoni ring road, the director of the municipal woodland area wanted to underline that the eight recently slaughtered specimens also clearly complied the safety margins established by the Consistory – stricter than those of other higher administrations, especially with regard to the narrowing of the trunk – but which, given the circumstances, prefer to redouble the precautions.
“Its levels of narrowing were similar to those of the palm tree that collapsed in the Raval – Guitart continued – levels that are actually within the margins that we consider safe. Until Thursday when a palm tree had a 30% narrowing in the trunk, it was cut. The European recommendation is to do it when it reaches 40%. We are now cutting before they get to 30% taper. In this way we dispel any doubt”. The government of Mayor Collboni does not want to take risks.
Hence, they also began to water them. The trees, in Barcelona, ??are only irrigated during their first four years, after planting. Then they have to fend for themselves. In principle it is understood that the rains and subsoil waters are enough for them to survive.
But the truth is that date palms suffer a lot during droughts. They are also prone to various pests. Barcelona has not planted a date palm since 2014. Yes, they come from very hot climates, but they tend to grow in areas where they never lack water. They are much more fragile than their majesty appears.
