The mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez, together with the councilor for the Centro-Ifara district, Guillermo Díaz Guerra, and the councilor for Public Services, Carlos Tarife, toured various enclaves where the unique trees that it treasures and preserves the municipality, precisely in the International Arbor Daywhich was held yesterday.
They did so accompanied by Pedro Millán, from the Santa Cruz Sustainable Foundation, and Belén Machado, head of Fundación Cepsa in the Canary Islands, along with Wolfredo Wildpret de la Torre and Victoria Eugenia Martín Osorio.
Bermúdez indicated that “the first of the 22 totems that will identify the unique trees of the city have been presented, after a work by the Santa Cruz Sustainable Foundation and Wolfredo Widpret and Victoria Eugenia Martín.”
Thus, within the framework of the event, he reiterated that the capital has some 27,600 trees and some 19,300 palm trees, “therefore, the tree is a sign of identity in our city” and, “for this reason, we are continually planting and caring for our tree mass”, he added.
Wolfredo Wildpret He affirmed that “I don’t remember having been in a city and I have been in many places, from Japan to Hawaii, that has the exotic urban plant heritage that Santa Cruz has” and stressed that “the important thing about its exotic plant representation is that there are specimens of all parts of the world, thanks to the climate of Santa Cruz and the possibility that it gives it of being an international city from the phytogeological point of view”.
For her part, Belén Machado indicated that from Fundación Cepsa “we wanted to collaborate and add value to the trees that the capital of Tenerife has to commemorate this international day”.
In addition, he recalled that it also does so “with many activities of the Santa Cruz Sustainable Foundation and this is one of them since it values the most unique trees of Santa Cruz, very important both for humanity and for the planet, since, in addition to beautifying, they purify the air, are a habitat for birds, stop the wind and nourish the soil.
It should be remembered that the Santa Cruz City Council highlighted the work of the University of La Laguna (ULL) and, specifically, Victoria Eugenia Martín Osorio, Wolfredo Wildpret de la Torre, José Manuel Correa Romero and Wolf-Hermann Wildpret Martín, who participated in the elaboration of the book Singular Trees of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Four itineraries with 41 unique trees
In terms of putting them into practice, both the Sustainable Santa Cruz Foundation and the Cepsa Foundation are in charge of the supports and signage to make these four itineraries known to the public and visitors to the city, with a total of 41 copies ( 34 signals, since some are shared).
The first of them is located in the surroundings of the park of La Granja and Viera y Clavijo; the second in the García Sanabria park and las ramblas, while the third runs through the center of the city, Plaza del Príncipe and San Francisco, mainly, and the fourth, between the Guimerá theater area and the surroundings of the church of La Conception.
It should be noted that the signs are completely accessible, both because of the place where they are located and because of the possibility of expanding the information by means of a QR code, and that soon, it will also include an audio recording of Wolfredo Wildpret, patron saint of the Sustainable Santa Cruz Foundation and author of the guide, so that it can be accessible to people with visual and hearing disabilities.
Planting a new specimen
Minutes before the inauguration of this first totem, La Granja Park witnessed the planting of a new specimen in its tree mass on the occasion of International Tree Day in Santa Cruz, an act attended by the mayor, in this case, together with councilor Carlos Tarife, and the head of the Santa Cruz Sustainable Foundation, Pedro Millán.
