Oldest tree in Attard valley ‘vandalised and cut clean from the bottom'

The Wied ta’ Rmiedi Rewilding Project has spoken out on social media after two of its oldest trees were allegedly vandalised and removed on site.

The NGO told Times of Malta that when volunteers arrived on site on Thursday to water the trees, they discovered two of their oldest and tallest white poplars had been cut clean from the bottom.

“The shoot was completely missing, so they weren't cut and discarded - they were taken. Also, the other trees were not touched, which has confused us slightly as to why this vandalism has occurred”, they said.

In a social media post, they described the incident as "a year's work down the drain," adding that the loss had not only destroyed two specimens but had also rendered their Miyawaki planting method useless due to the reduced density of trees.

The Miyawaki method is a way of planting trees developed by Dr Akira Miyawaki, a Japanese scientist who studied plants. This method uses competition between different types of trees to encourage trees to grow straight up.

This can make trees grow up to ten times faster than normal, achieving around one metre of vertical height annually.

The organisation planted its first Miyawaki plantation in July 2025 last year, with some tripling in size in just a year.

Wied ta' Rmiedi told Times of Malta that they will not be reporting the incident to the police. It said it had no information on who may have been responsible.

Not the first time

Back in 2015, Times of Malta reported a similar vandalism incident which involved around 15 trees being vandalised in Wied ta’ Rmiedi.

At the time, AD local councillor Ralph Cassar expressed his disapproval at the the action. He said it was clear that the vandals knew what they were doing because they cut the main trunk of the trees, which would cause the trees to be destroyed.