"We have never planted so much in 150 years, and never so little felled": the deputy in charge of revegetation Christophe Najdovski contemplates the 80 trees planted during the winter on a square once "very mineral" of the twelfth arrondissement.
A good example, for the town hall, of the 25,000 trees planted over this period throughout the capital.
Same arrondissement, different tone when Thomas Brail, founder of the National Group for Tree Monitoring (GNSA), presents a dozen mountain ashes planted near the ring road, "50 cm from the wall, facing south with direct reverberation, without watering ..."
"Well, these trees are all dead," says the activist, denouncing the fact of "putting them in the ground to make the figure (...) and let them die."
Re-elected in 2020, Anne Hidalgo has promised 170,000 more trees by the end of her term in 2026. With a total of 63,500 at mid-term, "more than a third of this goal will have been achieved," says the town hall.
This quantitative assessment is not unanimous. The town hall "calls trees shoots of 50 cm", especially those planted on the embankments of the ring road (30,000 in three years), castigates Tangui Le Dantec, co-founder of the collective Aux arbres citoyens !.
"Urban forests"
"When they do intensive Miyawaki," named after the Japanese botanist who theorized resilient groves thanks to their density, "they are not trees," says Le Dantec.
"The density of planting is far too high, they will never all make it to adulthood," he says.
And when Christophe Najdovski welcomes the fact that the felling rate "has decreased by about 20% for twenty years" to reach 1.5%, or 3,000 trees per year, Philippe Raine, Unsa union representative of the city's lumberjacks-pruners, deplores "all the work at the foot of the trees" which has "consequences for their sustainability and are a source of infections".
In Paris, trees have taken a central place in the political offer as in the future local urban plan that promises more green spaces in the face of climate © change Ludovic MARIN / AFP / Archives
For Anne Hidalgo's opponents, the "Miyawaki forests" are synonymous with the "urban forests" that the socialist elected representative had promised in 2020 on prestigious sites: Opera Garnier, Gare de Lyon and City Hall.
By technical impossibility, the first two were buried, the mayor keeping the hope of greening the forecourt of the City Hall. In the meantime, the executive has found three other sites, including the Plaza de Catalunya (XIV) where work is underway.
Elsewhere, the greening of the capital is indisputably seen in many neighborhoods, especially in the hundred or so "streets to schools" where trees have replaced cars.
The 800 trees planted during the last season in the streets proper "will be present in 100-150 years," says Christophe Najdovski.
Target 300 hectares
For this, the town hall, which has a huge nursery in Rungis (Val-de-Marne), seeks to diversify its species in the face of global warming. "The hazel tree of Byzantium, the maple of Montpellier are more adapted, while the beech, which needs water, will migrate to the north," explains Emmanuel Grégoire, the assistant to urban planning.
Monday in the city council, Mr. Grégoire will present the future local urban plan (PLU) that must dictate the evolution of Paris until the middle of the century.
The left-wing majority promises to create 300 hectares of additional green spaces - new or currently not open to the public - in order to reach the standard set by the World Health Organization (WHO) of 10m2 per inhabitant.
For now, only 53 hectares are guaranteed. "It is feasible on one condition: to put energy and a political support that we have never seen until now," enthuses the elected EELV Emile Meunier.
But for Unsa, the first union among the agents of Parisian green spaces, the ambitions of the city are untenable given the decrease in staff.
"Everyone is leaving, even though we have been warning for years about the need for a wage increase. Private boxes pay much better," laments Philippe Raine.
© 2023 AFP