Destruction of trees

It is with a broken heart that I try once again to bring about some awareness on the importance of trees. The authorities just make decisions without taking into consideration this subject.

Is it possible that a road cannot be built without chopping down hundreds of mature beautiful trees? Apparently, construction on the road to Marsalforn is planned and circa 300 mature trees will be chopped down in the process.

Is it possible there is not one capable person in this department that has some intelligence to avoid this butchering? But, then again, Gozo does not need Marsalforn road to be widened at all. It is already wide enough and traffic flows very freely through it. No traffic jams exist on this road.

So what is the real reason behind this project? These trees will be destroyed for no reason at all. Or is the reason behind all this to put money into the pockets of a selected few? Surfacing with tarmac would suffice. Persons who plan these projects should be made to understand that they are ruining our ecosystem and I don’t think it’s fair that we should be punished for the ignorance and incompetence of a few.

Emily Spiteri – Victoria

LESA at its best

The unthinkable happened: my car was booked in front of my own garage/house. The reason: for being unlocked. For the record, my car is a convertible.

So I cannot go in or out of my house to unload shopping or get the dogs in or get into my garage.

Beware, my fellow citizens. There are sharks everywhere.

Marlies Diamantino – St Julian’s

From the online comments board

Wildflower seeds to be sent to all households

Another political gimmick similar to the green walls. If the minister wants to be credible, he should change the current rural and ODZ policies and give more protection to the ODZ. It is in rural areas that these wild plants grow. Plants and trees do not grow on concrete. – Joe Mallia

Is cannabis a flowering plant? Considering its hyped up status, as the issue is always rolled out during times of trouble (irony at its best), I would like to be sent a couple of hemp seeds please. – Kris Cachia

Another pre-election gimmick. Why not stop planting pansies and turf on roundabouts and let wild flowers grow instead. Of course,  that would mean stopping some lucrative contract to someone or other. – Patrick Sciberras

It is a good idea; I’m all for it. But let’s not forget that each plot granted on ODZ land to some bażużlu decimates hundreds of thousands of flowers and pollinators and all the food it provides bees, not to mention the supposedly protected sometimes ancient carob trees that are being uprooted. Nothing can ever compensate for all that. – L. Attard

Where shall we plant them? In concrete slabs supplied by fellow minister Ian Borg? Or, perhaps, in the ODZ fields being ruined everyday with the excuse of tool rooms and/or sheds? Joseph Portelli’s daughter can also guide us being a part-time farmer. – N. Attard

Wouldn’t it be better if these wild flowers are allowed to grow in country lanes and roadsides rather than be regularly cut down by the cruel scythes of the so-called Landscaping Consortium? Or worse, sprayed upon with herbicide? These plants – ħaxix ħażin in the vernacular – support many insect species. We already have two butterfly species extinct thanks to this practice. – Emanuel Cardona

Could we have gardens where to plant flowers and plants other than pots? – L. Galea

I approve this initiative but let’s look at the white elephant in the room, the destruction of our countryside. – Andrew Terry Buttigieg

So after concreting all these country lanes and cutting down of trees, we will be given seeds to sow in our window pots. These are flowers that grow in the wild. These are where the bees look for them for pollination. Do we expect some ħarrub seeds to grow some ħarruba in our balcony? – Carmel Ellul

Good initiative but the seeds should have been given in autumn and not now, in spring and summer coming, when everything is naturally dying because of lack of rain. – Joe Camilleri

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