The council plans to plant more than 158,000 trees in two years in the degraded natural spaces of the Island. The outlined plan proposes treating 6,000 hectares, especially in areas repopulated with California Pine (Pinus radiata) and replacing it with Monteverde or Canary Island pine. The insular area of Management of the Natural Environment and Security has already restored more than one hundred hectares in the last two years. A total of 158,474 specimens previously produced in the island nurseries of La Tahonilla, Las Eres, in Fasnia, Aguamansa and El Portillo will be planted.
“The eradication treatments for the American pine forests will be restarted shortly for their replacement by the new species.” It is pointed out by the councilor Isabel García, who also assures that “restoration work will be increased in the rest of the native plant formations and the surface to be repopulated in the coming years will be significantly higher than the current one.”
This environmental improvement and restoration of degraded spaces is focused, above all, on the control and eradication of exotic species and their replacement by other native ones produced in the island nurseries themselves. García has recalled that fires are one of the causes that can generate this environmental setback.
The works consist of stopping soil erosion, in addition to improving biodiversity and even contributing to the increase of aquifers. The counselor recalls that “the production of endemic or autochthonous plants ensures the survival of their own species.”
The specimens come from the four existing nurseries in Tenerife
The initiative brings citizens closer to specimens that could otherwise be in danger, either due to human action or due to displacement factors generated by invasive species.
The counselor recalled that in La Tahonilla there is an office to the public of species produced in the nursery. Plant production techniques take care of aspects such as the origin of the seed and its genetic quality in order to ensure that the specimens produced adapt in the best possible way to the destination area.
In the four nurseries of the council different species are produced. Thus, in Las Eras (Fasnia) they work fundamentally on the production of basal floor plants (cardonal-tabaibal); in La Tahonilla (La Laguna) plants from the vegetation levels of thermophilic forest and Monteverde are produced and in Aguamansa (La Orotava) others for thermophilic forest, monteverde, Canarian pine forest and punctually for summit scrub. At Teide National Park there is the El Portillo (La Orotava) nursery dedicated to high mountain species or broom-codesar.
The four nurseries produce more than 200 endemic or autochthonous plant species and an average of 88,040 copies per year. It should be noted that 90% of these plants are used for the restoration of ecosystems, reforestation and public works, while 10% are for sale to individuals and companies.
Among the species that produces a greater number of specimens for each vegetation stage are the sweet tabaiba or the balo for the basal; juniper, guaydil, peralillo and blood stick for the thermophilic forest; faya, palo blanco, loro or viñátigo in the case of monteverde; laurisilva, Canarian pine, broom and cedar for the pine forest floor and the Teide broom and the summit lard in the retamar-codesar or high mountain.
