Debrecen4U November 20, 2024

New trees to replace fungus-infested trees on Dósa nádor Square

Four trees in Dósa nádor Square must be felled due to a fungal infection.

According to the city’s tree inspectorate and tree care engineers, the chief gardener, and experts from the mayor’s green spaces department, the decision to remove the trees was unavoidable due to their poor health and conditions dating back several decades. The trees will be felled immediately and replaced on Tuesday, November 19, 2024.

Before the renovation, Dósa nádor Square was used as a car park, where the paved surface made it virtually impossible for the trees to be adequately watered. The roots of the trees only had access to some rainwater through a narrow strip of pearl millet, just 1 metre wide, which was not enough to allow them to grow at a proper rate and remain healthy. The lack of water was compounded by the fact that the roots of the trees were not only deprived of water, but also air, due to the compacted soil caused by the constant traffic of vehicles, and therefore weakened. The one on the side of the Napló House shows signs of canopy drying in the 2018 street photo.

During the square’s renovation, special attention was paid to improving the urban habitat conditions of the four remaining trees, which were placed in a greener environment and surrounded by a large grassy square.

The new situation allowed for daily watering, which would have been ideal for healthy plants, but these trees already had problems before the reconstruction of the square.

A fungal infection was already present in the trees, but as the fruiting bodies had not yet developed, the pathogen was virtually undetectable. The inadequate water supply not only fed the trees but also the fungus, accelerating the damage and the deterioration of their health.

In addition to damaging plant health, in the long term, this may also pose an accident hazard due to the death of branches and an environmental safety risk. Due to the advanced infection, this may pose a danger in the busy square despite careful care and regular branch drying. This is unacceptable in a square that is also the venue for events but which also receives a significant number of visitors on a daily basis.

Four Hackberry trees will replace the plants to be removed, as the city’s chief gardener recommended. The new tree planting will provide an opportunity to create a greener, more sustainable space that will serve the community of Debrecen in the long term.

Large planting pits will be created to ensure rapid and efficient development. The new plants are essential not only from an aesthetic point of view but also from an environmental point of view. Planting the trees will ensure that the green area of Dósa nádor Square will continue to provide a pleasant microclimate for the city’s inhabitants. Carefully selected, nursery-grown, mature saplings of significant trunk size will be planted, and the extensive canopy that will develop over time will ensure that they fulfil their urban ecological role – shade, evaporation, oxygen production, carbon sequestration, nesting, hiding and feeding for birds – in a relatively short time.

Source: debrecen.hu