The heavy pruning of the mature olive trees surrounding the University of Malta’s race track was necessary to remove excessive branch decay and would not jeopardise their growth, according to the contracted landscapist.
Contacted by this newspaper, Manuel Ciantar insisted that the trees had never been pruned and had suffered neglect which led to fungal infection.
Out of the 55 trees pruned, Mr Ciantar said that between 35 and 40 of them had broken branches some two to three metres above soil level and which were, in turn, leaning on to other branches.
He said he had taken care to prune as little as possible, deciding on a cut-off height of two metres.
When it was pointed out that some of the trees had been pruned to a much shorter height, Mr Ciantar said it was because the disease had penetrated deeper. His pruning job rendered the trees ideal for olive picking in the future.
Around 80 per cent of the resulting wood was diseased and destroyed by fire to prevent it from spreading, he said.
His pruning job rendered the trees ideal for olive picking in the future
Olive wood for carving sells for very high prices. Asked whether he was, in fact, selling off the chopped wood for other purposes, Mr Ciantar denied this.
“What other purposes can it have? The wood cannot be used for furniture – Maltese olive trees do not grow straight but are sloping.” Mr Ciantar called upon the authorities to keep up with the pace of fast-growers and to prune such trees regularly. He invited the media and “tree-huggers” lambasting his pruning to view the trees and their sprouting shoots in two months’ time.
Last autumn, the University organised an olive harvest, in which some 430 kilograms’ worth of olives were picked from the trees and pressed into oil.
The proceeds from the sale of the olive oil netted €1,000 for the Malta Community Chest Fund.
In a reaction, the University said it was “very disappointed and deeply regretted” the unfortunate outcome resulting from the extreme pruning of the olive trees.
“This was a serious misjudgment and care will be taken in future to ensure that such actions will never be repeated,” it said.
The olive trees, the University continued, had grown inordinately high, and the upper branches had dried up.
In an effort to rejuvenate the trees, the University staff responsible issued a call for four quotations for pruning services, and one provider was chosen.
The contractor had previously done satisfactory pruning work on campus, the University said.
The service provider was meant to prune the trees in such a way as to limit their eventual height after regrowth and to strengthen them over the next two years.
Another 30 olive trees are to be planted in the same area later on this year.
Astrid Vella from Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar said the NGO was shocked over the case, which saw 55 healthy, fruit-bearing olive trees being reduced to near stumps.
“The trees have been damaged beyond repair and will never fully recover… FAA asks what steps are to be taken against the cowboy contractor, and what has become of the wood that was abusively chopped.”
She said this was the result of the lack of protection of trees by successive governments. The 2011 so-called Tree Protection Act had actually removed trees’ protection and made it easier for developers to get rid of trees that got in the way of development.
FAA has long been calling for legislation which would require contractors to be trained and qualified before they carried out pruning, “unlike the present situation where anyone who can wield a chainsaw – including builders and street cleaners – is engaged by local councils, having submitted the lowest quote”.