Tending Orihuela’s Palmeral forest with new trees and traditional crops

ORIHUELA’S Environment department continues to add new palms to the Palmeral forest.

In line with the Palmeral Master Plan, the department intends to plant another 50 trees in addition to the 300  planted since 2020 as city hall rejuvenatesEurope’s second-biggest palm forest after Elche’s.

The aim is to regain a density of 300 trees per hectare, compared with the current 220.

“The new trees will planted in zones where they can be easily watered to guarantee their survival the summer,” Environment councillor Damaso Aparicio said.

“More will be planted in the autumn when they need less maintenance regarding irrigation.”

Aparicio’s department is also preparing to replace fig and olive trees while incorporating traditional crops including two plots for cotton, Aparicio revealed.

Six plots are to be given over to alfalfa on land in danger of being taken over by weeds: “Alfalfa improves the soil and will limit their spread,” Aparicio said.

With wheat now growing on a further 4,500 square metres of Palmeral land, an increasing number of traditional crops have returned to what the councillor described as “a unique open space.”