The Girona City Council plans to cut down three more trees in the Devesa park after receiving the preliminary technical report commissioned following the recent falls of specimens in the area near the Rose Garden. The decision is made to minimize the risk of falling in an environment where four plane trees have already been removed in the last month.
Technical Report and Recent Actions
The councilor for Climate Action, Sergi Cot, announced this Monday that the report from the company responsible for the park's maintenance recommends the felling of three additional trees. The initial technical conclusions point to the need to intervene in the area to minimize risk. Cot detailed that the measure responds to the concern generated by recent falls and that action will be taken before spring, especially in the Rose Garden area.
"Today we received the preliminary technical report from the company that maintains Devesa Park. The initial technical conclusions are that three more trees in the area will probably have to be felled to minimize risk as much as possible" - Sergi Cot, Councilor for Climate Action
Background and context in La Devesa
In the last month, the city council has felled four banana trees in the vicinity of the Rosaleda building. The first specimen was removed at the beginning of December, and three others were felled before the end of the year, following the fall of a tree on December 23. The removed trees were located near the Devesa canal, an area particularly affected by episodes of water stress and soil compaction.
Mayor Lluc Salellas emphasized that the trees felled were those posing the greatest risk of falling and causing both human and material damage. He also recalled that in June of last year, a dead horse chestnut tree was removed from the same area.
Additional Measures and Prevention
The City Council has announced that, in addition to felling, pruning and crown reduction work will be carried out on the trees in the Rosaleda before spring. Cot recently stated that no further actions of this type are planned in the short term. The possibility of relocating some fairs that are usually set up on the Devesa promenade is also being studied, as well as the placement of obstacles to prevent vehicle access to the canal.
Tree falls in La Devesa have been recurrent in recent months. The first incident of 2025 occurred on June 15 with a plane tree about fifty meters high. The second fell on November 8, and the last one on December 23. One of the hypotheses regarding the fall of the last specimen points to soil disturbance and the constant rains prior to the Christmas holidays.
Destination of Wood and Intervention Criteria
Mayor Salellas indicated that the wood from the felled trees will be used to manufacture urban furniture for parks and for the La Vora project, which will provide Girona with a walkable ring. The mayor himself insisted that the external appearance of the trees is not a sufficient indicator and that factors such as water stress, soil compaction, and the fall of nearby specimens are taken into account"External appearance is not a sufficient indicator," added Salellas, who emphasized the importance of other indicators such as "periods of water stress" or "intense soil compaction."
For now, no new logging of this type is foreseen in the short term, according to councilman Cot.