The tree men

I refer to the letter by James Mizzi in which he refers to the pruning of mature street trees, notably the ficus nitida around the new sports complex in Cottonera.

Firstly, I would like to thank Mr Mizzi for his passion and interest in trees and I would like to assure him that ever since the Environmental Landscapes Consortium Ltd (ELC) took over the pruning of trees along the main thoroughfares and public gardens, as well as those that fall under the responsibility of a number of local councils, the butchering of trees that was so commonplace before November 2002, has now stopped.

Indeed, the board of directors of ELC, including myself, has given a clear directive to the pruning staff not to cut any branch of less than three inches in diameter unless specifically authorised by our highly qualified and experienced operations managers. The only times when such branches are removed are when they either pose a hazard to traffic or to the public, or for aesthetic reasons such as the opening up of the crown and re-establishment of a tree's balanced form.

The public may have noticed an intensive period of pruning, trimming and general tree care since the beginning of ELC's operations in November, whereby an enormous amount of work was carried out designed to catch up with a backlog of work, which in some cases, went back to 30 years.

A case in point were the pinus halepensis at Howard Gardens, Rabat, which have now all been very well pruned.

An indication of the enormity of the task at hand can be gained when one considers that approximately 1,000 cubic metres of tree prunings have been generated since the beginning of operations last November.

It is important to note, however, that most of the prunings consisted of dead, twiggy or ill placed smaller branches and not main branches.

All of this material is being recycled by chipping and using it as an attractive organic mulch in our landscaping operations in Blata l-Bajda, Msida, Qormi and Mellieha.

Environmental Landscapes Consortium has now embarked on an intensive period of training for all our 326 employees not only in arboriculture (including tree pruning) but also in all other facets of landscaping such as irrigation engineering, lawn care, soil care, weed and pest control, tree planting and staking etc.

We are taking all the measures necessary to instil a very high degree of professionalism into all our employees so that our roads and public gardens are beautifully landscaped and maintained for all to enjoy.