SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Oct. 12 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Cabildo de Tenerife has extracted during the nine months of 2022 more than 100 metric tons of waste from invasive exotic plants from protected natural spaces.
Of those hundred tons, only 38% have been transferred to the Arico Environmental Complex, while 63% remains on the ground.
This material is reincorporated into the environment to favor its recovery, with the intention of avoiding the impoverishment of the soil.
“There are still a few months of work left,” said Isabel García, island councilor for the Natural Environment area, who added in a note that “the eradication and control policy is bearing fruit,” although she recalled that “invasive plants continue to being a serious threat to protected areas and to insular biodiversity”.
The Cabildo de Tenerife recommends the population to use species from authorized shops and nurseries, since “they know the species and their invasive capacity, we must be wary of the showy flowers that grow on roadsides and lots, as well as from those offered by friends and family”. “Do not take home any plant,” says the counselor.
So far in 2022, the most relevant data is the collection of 28,829 kilos of ‘Argentine plumacho’ (Cortaderia selloana) waste and 17,220 kilos of ‘Crassula multicava’, of which 10,290 have been composted in Anaga and 6,930 kilos that have been taken to landfill.
The cat’s tail is the third plant on which the most action has been taken, collecting a total of 16,445 kilograms and acting on an area of almost a thousand hectares.
In general terms, these actions consist of the manual uprooting of the invasive exotic species with small tools, and occasionally machinery has been used (brush cutters and chainsaws).
For this, the protocols and technical criteria for the planning and development of the work are followed, in such a way that the dispersion of all types of propagules is minimized both during the extraction of the specimens, and in the transfer of the materials to the final managers of the residue.
The waste that is not reused in the form of compost is transported to the Tenerife Environmental Center. However, it should be noted that in the Teno Rural Park and in Anaga, composting trials are being carried out with the remains of ‘Crassula multicava’.
During 2022, the field staff dedicated to control and eradication tasks is made up of more than fifty field workers, divided into crews of five people.
The technical coordination staff is made up of a forestry engineer, a biologist, a production support technician and a foreman without a crew.
The gangs were distributed throughout the insular geography.
