Silves council, aware of the fatal event in Funchal, when a tree killed 13 people at a religious festival, (here) is following Faro’s lead and cutting down trees that have been identified as being at risk.
The first trees to go are in the garden of the Largo da República, next to a secondary school.
The council explained that, as part of the project to renovate the park, an expert was consulted from the Higher Institute of Agronomy’s plant pathology lab, Veríssimo Almeida, to "carry out field and laboratory work to evaluate the health and the risk to the public from trees at the site.”
Some innocuous looking trees were found to diseased inside, to the extent that they posed a ‘high level of danger’ to the public.
The council says the work is to avoid people being killed, especially as the park soon will be full with school children after term starts in early September.
It is hoped that other of the region’s councils also are attending to trees in their public spaces - Faro made a good start this week in the Alameda João de Deus gardens but has 130 trees on its danger list, all of which need attention after years of neglect.
