Double inspection of each palm tree on the CV-905 in Torrevieja

Torrevieja City Council is looking at every palm tree in the median of the CV-905 after one that was infected with the red palm weevil epidemic fell on a car on Friday, killing the 22-year-old man who was the only person inside.

Yesterday, Monday November 17th, the Parks and Gardens Department said that the company hired to take care of the city’s parks and gardens is checking each tree in the centre of the CV-905, which is the main road into the city and sees more than 30,000 cars pass through it every day. This job should take no more than 48 hours.

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The statement says that the process is a “double verification,” which means that two specialised operators check the identical palm tree using separate approaches. This part has between 40 and 50 palm trees. You need to examine both the trunk and the crown for this. Also, mechanical procedures have been utilised to look for holes in the trunks.

Experts say that when a palm tree is infested with weevils, the damage is usually easy to see on the crown or base of the tree. The statement, however, stresses that “the palm tree that caused the sad and regrettable incident last Friday did not show these signs.”

In one case, a hole was located in the middle of the palm tree, about three metres high, where it broke. The trunk of the tree looked healthy at first glance because the crown was still intact. However, the larvae of this beetle and the adult weevils were inside the trunk. The disease can often be seen with the naked eye because the fronds drop, but there are other situations when the infection has entirely taken over the trunk without displaying any signs on the outside.

Looking for the red palm weevil

The Parks and Gardens Department has also done an amazing and thorough check of all 5,526 palm trees in the city. The majority of these trees, 3,833, are Phoenix washingtonia robusta. Very few reported occurrences of weevil infection have been found in these trees. There are, however, hundreds of Phoenix dactylifera, which is the same species as the palm tree that broke on the CV-905. There are also Phoenix canariensis and several Washingtonia filifera.

Since the red palm weevil was found in the Vega Baja area in 2008, it has killed thousands of palm plants. At this time, the firm in charge of conservation has only found two trees in the municipality that are being watched and treated for this invasive species.

Besides all of this, the same statement stresses that “the red palm weevil infestation in Torrevieja is an issue that has been addressed daily for more than a decade, and at the moment the incidence is similar to that of other populations.”

Reviews every so often

The City Council also pointed out that the new contract for maintaining green spaces, which was given to the business Actúa (Hozono Group) this summer for fifteen years and 113 million euros, contains the necessity for two visual inspections of all palm trees in the city each year. There must be one inspection when the tree is cut back and another one at some time during the year. Also, visual checks are done every time landscaping work is done on the median area of the road.

The City Council began its annual pruning of all the trees at the end of September. Most of the work is done, but certain places still need to be trimmed. For example, the median strip of this road was supposed to be done this week, according to city officials. Some sources say that experienced personnel might have been able to find the problem during this maintenance job, but they also say that it is hard to find without an inside study.

The cutting back of the palm tree may have also made it lighter, as it was full of fruit, as seen in the pictures of the disaster.

But since Friday, social media has been full of anger over blaming the deadly tragedy on a string of coincidences and a sad accident. The focus of the criticism has been on the city’s management and the upkeep of the trees. The Torrevieja City Council is in charge of taking care of the landscaping along the median strip up to the city borders, even if the CV-905 highway is in the region. This is what the Council itself says.

Sadness

An accident in the salt-producing town that shocked everyone because it killed 22-year-old Spanish national and town resident Martín Pérez Aniorte, who had just lost his parents. His parents both died of illness in a short amount of time. He had been living with his younger sister at his uncle’s house since then.

During Holy Week in Torrevieja, he was a member of the Brotherhood of Our Father Jesus of the Fall, just like his father. He carried the image of Jesus as a bearer and was a great student at the Municipal Football School. He went to Cuba public school for his early and primary education.