‘Park trees are being pruned’

ALSANCAK Municipality spoke out this week to calm fears that trees were being “massacred” in its new National Park.

Concern was voiced after pine trees at the wooded site, inland from the Landing Beach monument, were seen being heavily cut back by council staff.

However officials assured the public that the pruning was a means of “rejuvenating” the trees and was being carried out under Forestry Department guidance.

Alsancak Municipality parks chief Ertan Borat explained that if the pines were not pruned they would spread horizontally, rather than vertically, and so they had to be cut back for the sake of the park’s aesthetic appearance.

He said their priorities at the site were its olive and carob trees, and so they were targeting those trees which were impeding their growth by blocking out the sunlight — in some cases, removing branches down to root level.

Mr Borat rejected any suggestion of a tree “massacre”, adding that olive trees uprooted elsewhere because of construction work had been replanted in the park.

Alsancak’s National Park opened to the public last spring after the completion of footpaths and cycle tracks. The park, covering 186 dönüms of forest land, offers some 2km of walkways with adjacent lanes for jogging and cycling.

Alsancak Mayor Fırat Ataser’s flagship four million TL project is being funded by the Turkish Embassy and the municipality, with further facilities to include a central water feature, kiosks, cafés and toilets, children’s play areas, tennis courts and a football pitch set in landscaped gardens.