A heavy budget, which speaks of an urban natural heritage systematically dismantled. The local section of Italia Nostra, chaired by the lawyer Alessandro Caruso Frezza, launches a harsh indictment against the municipal administration, lining up the numbers of what it defines as a real green “extermination” that began last November.
The census of killings: 34 specimens lost in a few months
According to what was reported by the association, the count of felled trees has reached alarming figures:
“In Vibo Valentia, from 2 November 2024 to today, at least 34 trees, centuries-old or almost Aldo Moro), 5 centuries-old pine trees in Via Dante Alighieri, a few weeks later another 3 centuries-old pine trees on the same street, just yesterday, 13 February, yet another century-old pine tree on Via Dante Alighieri and just today, 14 February, 3 trees at least 70 years old on Viale della Pace, as well as, again yesterday, 1 mimosa tree, not century-old but still majestic, in front of the new court in Vibo Valentia. Total: 34 trees felled, almost all centuries-old.”
The justification for bad weather and the “case” of cyclone Nils
The administration would have justified the latest interventions with the wave of bad weather, but Italia Nostra firmly disputes this version, speaking of historical inclinations and not immediate dangers.
“The blame for yesterday and today’s cutting of the 4 pine trees, respectively no. 1 on via Dante Alighieri and no. 3 on viale della Pace, was placed on Nils, the cyclone Nils. We know nothing about the mimosa before the new court of Vibo Valentia. But none of the aforementioned pine trees and the aforementioned mimosa had fallen to the ground, despite Nils and, before that, despite Harry. But it was said that ‘they had tilted’. But so they were always: inclined. No evidence, in fact, to date, that there had been signs of undermining or overturning of the root ball or of a sudden increase in inclination.”
The association clarifies that the raised tiles in via Dante Alighieri would not be a sign of recent subsidence, but the “mere effect of having put concrete and tiles up to the collar of the tree trunk”. The same would be true for the mimosa: “no movement of the earth and an inclination that has always existed, as a mere adaptation of the plant to the direction of the wind, without any prejudice to its stability.”
Killings for “mere prudence”: the conflict with EU rules
The central point of the controversy concerns the legitimacy of these interventions from a regulatory and scientific point of view. Italia Nostra underlines how culling should be the ultima ratio, not the first choice.
“These are therefore, those which occurred yesterday and today, fellings ‘out of prudence’, out of ‘mere prudence’. But ‘felling out of mere prudence’ is precisely what EU Regulation 2024/1999 prohibits and what scientific methods of phytostatic control also do not prescribe. This is because the objective is to save mature trees and not to cut them down, implementing, if necessary, all existing techniques to strengthen their static stability, before the decision is made to cut them down, because the aim is not to reduce tree cover in cities but to increase it, to preserve all the benefits that trees bring to human health.”
Absent transparency and the risk of extinction of urban greenery
In addition to technical management, Italia Nostra points the finger at the lack of communication on the part of the competent bodies:
“No correct and complete phytostatic evaluation data has ever been made known, spontaneously, by the manager of the Technical Office of the Municipality and by the Mayor himself, who has also signed numerous abatement orders. Not even the councilor for urban greenery has ever made known anything precise and timely in this regard. In the space intended, by legal obligation, for environmental information on the ‘Transparent Administration’ site of the Municipality of Vibo Valentia there is never anything, after every tree felling.”
The accusation then becomes ironic and bitter: “Yet before Nils and Harry, there had been no other cyclone. Unless you want to use the names of the agronomists in charge or of the manager of the Technical Office or of the Mayor to give the respective name to those ‘silent’ cyclones, but with consequential tree felling, which there have been, one for each of the 34 trees felled. But it doesn’t matter, now the It’s Nils’ fault!”
A balance that exceeds 50 specimens
The picture becomes worse if private interventions are also considered. “If to this we add the cutting of the centuries-old eucalyptus forest (at least 15 specimens) just a few weeks ago, along the road to the former cement factory between Vibo Marina and Bivona, and, just a few months earlier, of a centuries-old ficus on the seafront of Vibo Marina, these cuts, however, carried out by private entities, result in more than 50 trees, almost all centuries-old, cut in an urban area in the space of a very short time.”
The conclusion of Italia Nostra is a cry of alarm for the future of the city: “And so the centuries-old trees in our city are or will all be rapidly becoming extinct. And we will sink even deeper, in the evaluations of the ‘greenest’ cities in Europe, because Vibo will be the only city in Europe without any tree cover of centuries-old trees.”