Madrid has almost 300,000 trees scattered around the streets. It is they who connect the lungs of the city. The more trees there are between the parks, the better the advantages of urban vegetation are spread in cities: shade, freshness and cleanliness of the air from pollutant particles. If the current project of the Autonomous Community of Madrid to expand metro line 11 is implemented, there will be 880 fewer trees in the streets through which this first section of the line, which runs from Plaza Elíptica to Conde de Casal, will pass . The construction of five stations – Comillas, Madrid Río, Palos de la Frontera, Atocha and Conde de Casal – will result in the loss of much of the trees through felling and transplanting at 17 points in the city.
The infrastructure is intended to connect the north with the south of the city and meet the public transport needs of these areas. The neighbors want the subway, but not at the expense of their trees. “Metro yes, but not like this” is one of the demands that neighborhood associations have been fighting for since February this year, when a red and white fence was erected around the grove of plane trees over 50 years old in Madrid Río. The fence surrounded the trees to be felled, which caused outrage from surrounding neighborhoods and they began investigating the project. Six months later, the Autonomous Community of Madrid prepared a new environmental impact assessment, reducing the felling from 1,027 to 664 and 216 transplants. The neighborhood struggle has widened, as has the design of the new subway line: residents are seeing viable alternatives that could further reduce logging at most stations. These are the trees that will be lost when the project is implemented.
quotation marks
The plant starts from the Plaza Elíptica station, which is excavated manually (with less aggressive machines than the tunnel boring machine) up to the first new station, Comillas. On the way, a ventilation shaft and an emergency exit will be opened. The fountain will cost 11 trees and the emergency exit another six. But the first new station and major logging will take place in Comillas Park in the Carabanchel district. This is also where the tunnel boring machine that will bore the rest of the route will enter. The 44-year-old park is the only rampant vegetation in the neighborhood, but the tunnel boring machine needs an area with auxiliary facilities to place the machines, which will destroy nearly 200 trees.
Comillas residents were among the first to protest. They held a demonstration from the park to the Toledo Bridge, which connects the districts of Carabanchel and Arganzuela, to join the rest of the concentration shouting next to the red and white fence of Madrid Río.
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Madrid river
Madrid Río train station has been the spearhead in the fight against tree felling. The 54-year-old plane trees that shade Arganzuela Park and are more than five stories tall should be felled. They were identified as being inside the red and white fence, which still stands. The fence was the site of the neighbors’ resistance demonstration. Every afternoon they painted the fence and put up signs against deforestation. Everything was cleaned at night by an indefatigable workman whom the neighbors called Sisyphus, a reference to the Greek myth of the man condemned by the gods to scale a rock to the top of a mountain, where he found himself under his feet again collapsed weight. , and painted it white and red again. So for months.
With the new simplified environmental impact assessment, the Autonomous Community of Madrid has given in and changed the method of land reclamation in order to save most of the historical forest. Instead of building a concrete ramp for the trucks to haul the excavated dirt out of the middle of the grove, you can remove the dirt vertically, which is a bit more complicated. According to the Autonomous Community of Madrid, 117 trees are now being felled and 61 replanted. Before they wanted to start 250.
That’s not enough for the neighbors. At the beginning of the project, the station was outside the park on Paseo de Yeserías, and this location only cost 22 trees. The fight to have the station removed from the park continues with allegations against the project. Residents accuse the Autonomous Community of Madrid of having falsified the plans, using as an excuse a pipe from the Canal de Isabel II that prevents the work on the promenade from being carried out, and reiterating that this pipe would pass just outside the station and this being the case would not prevent its construction. The route continues to Palos de la Frontera but leaves 11 fellings and 23 grafts at three points in Legazpi before reaching the station via ventilation shafts and emergency exits.
sticks of the border
It took residents of Palos de la Frontera longer than those of Madrid Río to figure out what was going to happen in their neighborhood, but the neighborhood movement has become very strong in the area. In June, they began meeting to organize protests and public activities so that everyone around them knew what was about to happen: they used signs with a red cross to draw attention to the trees that were about to be felled. 70 trees are now being felled and 25 replanted in this area, but before that 64 trees have also disappeared from Áncora Street. Again at the ramp they wanted to build so the trucks could haul away the excavated earth. Now instead of walking on the street as planned, which means restricting road traffic, they wanted to build it on the sidewalks, destroying trees four stories high in the process.
Although the trees on Áncora Street have been saved, residents of Palos de la Frontera continue to protest. They believe that the facilities in Palestina Gardens can also be saved, where a substation could be built, which could be built in the space between metro lines 11 and 3, which also pass through Palos de la Frontera. Now they hold rallies, called piadas, against logging every Thursday afternoon.
Atocha Renfe
In Atocha, mobilizations begin to awaken. Several residents of Paseo de la Infanta Isabel, Paseo de la Reina Cristina and Avenida de la Ciudad de Barcelona have filed joint allegations against the project. They explain, among other things, “that they were not properly informed”. Her allegations run to one page, compared to the 90 put forward by the no-to-logging platform. In Atocha, 70 trees are felled and nine are transplanted. Another white and red fence has already appeared there, surrounding a construction area where a gas station is being dismantled. Little by little, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure is moving forward with work that has been delayed five months since logging stopped to explore better options.
In Atocha, trees up to 20 meters high will fall directly behind the gas station. And there seems to be no way to save her. One of the project’s allegations is that the ramp is designed to remove all soil from the excavation pit. This is a temporary installation to be built on the pavement of the Paseo de la Infanta Isabel, where 23 plane trees up to 12 meters high will be uprooted. height, to be built on the road so as not to have to cut it down. Achieving this would require slowing down traffic on Paseo de la Reina Cristina and part of the Atocha roundabout, one of the busiest areas of the city. On the way to Conde de Casal, three more trees are doomed and 15 are being replanted.
Count of Casal
In Conde de Casal, 95 trees will be felled and 43 will be transplanted. There, the echoes of the neighbors about the tree felling can hardly be heard, although it is on the podium of the three most affected areas after Comillas and Madrid Rio. “In Conde de Casal there is no neighborhood association and it is more difficult to get there,” explains Susana de la Higuera, spokeswoman for the no-logging movement. Avenida del Mediterráneo, in the section from the M-30 to the Conde de Casal roundabout, will have practically no shade. The palm trees at the roundabout and those leading up the boulevard from Calle del Doctor Esquerdo will also fall. The remainder of the felling work will take place on both sides of the M-30 as there will be auxiliary installation areas and a ramp to remove the earth: 28 trees were felled and 20 transplanted for this purpose. The tunnel boring machine will be used at a site on the other side of the M-30 where 47 trees will be felled and nine transplanted.
The Environment Ministry found it necessary to extend the deadline for submitting claims to September 6. In principle, they could be submitted by August 24th. The allegations regarding the project are addressed to this council, as it is responsible, together with the Madrid City Council, for approving the project. Once the term is up, they will consider the proposals. It depends on the number of admitted allegations that the lives of these trees and the shade of Madrid will be saved.
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