close parks to lime and song

Madrid. July. The thermometer Nourish with the 38ºC. The heat is so suffocating, so sticky, that you just feel like sitting in front of a fan with a soda to the side and wait for the hours to spend. ESO or seek refuge under a tree of El Retiro or any other of the parks of the capital, vast green, leafy areas, full of vegetation and that after all are designed for that, right? The problem is that when you get to El Retiro you find that it is closed.

Its closure in the middle of the extreme heat wave seems absurd, a “common sense” measure, like They denounce Some neighbors and politicians. The City Council alleges however that allows it to avoid misfortunes derived precisely from high temperatures. The big question is … Is that true? And compensates?

When the heat comes … Madrid needs shadows. So much, in fact, that has invested 1.5 million In euros to install Quita and Put at Puerta del Sol to prevent the square from becoming a roast. When heat really arrives and mercury goes from 35º, what many neighbors do, however it is to seek refuge in the parks of the municipality, such as Whim, THE ROSALEDA OF THE PARK OF THE WEST, Juan Carlos i, Arias Torre, Watercress source And of course the good retreat, 125 hectares with leafy trees and a vividifying shadow.

Refreshing Park, Closed Park. The problem is that these parks are not always open. It happened yesterday, July 7when in some points of the community 35ºC were exceeded. Despite that heat, the risks that suppose and the need for shadow, the City Council announced The closure of El Retiro and other parks already in the afternoon due to “adverse weather conditions”.

A quick review of the official account of the Consistory in X arrives to verify that it is not something exceptional: today nine green areas of the city (the withdrawal included) maintain some restricted parts, just like Sunday. Saturday Several grove directly closed their gates from three in the afternoon, just when the sun squeezes. Something similar had already happened on Wednesday.

Some time ago The Spanish newspaper He made accounts and calculated that between May 21, 2021 and May 25, 2022 the parks were totally or partially closed 161 daysthat is, 44% of the days. Almost one in two. Europa Press esteem that since May the parks have closed about 10 times.

But … why? By “adverse weather conditions”, emphasizes the City Council, which usually accompanies each notice of a link to The web in which it details the protocol that follows to close the parks of the city. Its logic is quite simple: the City Council uses a ‘traffic light’ of four colors (green, yellow, orange and red) that identify the conditions of the parks and to what extent they are suitable for the enjoyment of citizens if the risks are taken into account. To assign one or the other it is based on data provided by the AEMET.

The technicians make the forecasts setting specifically in the situation of El Retiro and according to such different issues, the temperature, the water in the soil or the risk of storms. Hence The City Council emphasizesthat its calculations do not always coincide with the forecasts of other areas of the city. The most serious situation, the “red alert”, implies that all the planned activities are suspended, the enclosure is evicted and the park closes.

And when is it declared? A priori when The technicians foresee wind gusts equal to or greater than 65 km/h with maximum temperatures below 35ºC and a percentage of water available in the soil of less than 75%. Another possibility (which is applied in summer) is that the streaks pass 55 km/h, but with high temperatures, in which the maximums are above 35º.

When this alert is activated in the retirement, it is transferred to other large green areas of the municipality and the whim, Jardines de Sabatini, the Rosebed of the West Park, Juan Carlos I, Juan Pablo II, Quinta de Fuente del Berro, fifth of the mills and fifth Torre Torre Arias, green hectares, green.

Reviewing the newspaper library. It may seem excessive, but the Consistory remembers that the retreat is full of large and old trees, “so they can suffer damage or fractures in branches and trunks.” In fact the protocol applied by the City Council Refers to that risk in your name. Your goal? Basically manage “incidents caused by trees.”

It is not a minor issue. In March 2018 A four -year -old boy died due to the impact of a pine who collapsed in retirement, May 30 A 25 -year -old was critical of the fall of a branch in a Carabanchel park and does alone A few weeks A woman was seriously injured after a tree fell on her when she left home. Rain or snowfall involves a risk. The mixture of wind and extreme heat, also.

“Against common sense”. That the closure of the parks respond to a protocol does not prevent the measure from generating criticism. Both neighbors (they are easily in networks) as of opposition parties. A frequent complaint and that I recently remembered The Europa Press agency is that the municipal protocol goes “against common sense”: if the heat waves are a threat and the parks serve among other things to mitigate it, why do they close just when they do the most missing? No other alternatives in the middle of the cannula?

The issue has unleashed an intense debate at a social and political level. More Madrid He has insisted in which “a reflection on the review of the protocol” must be opened and update the inventory of the trees. And the Socialists have advocated “risk maps” that takes into account the type of woodland and avoid the complete closures of parks, in addition to direct access to the Eugenio Trías library.

Another idea that has been on the table is to develop specific plans for each city park or the different areas in which the retirement is divided, something that a priori does not seem to convince the municipal government. “There is no safe zone because they have all been susceptible to falling trees,” they argue.

Pulling figures. If the Consistory has supported something to defend its position it is, however, in the figures. According to their data, the closures take away very little time to enjoy the neighbors but drastically reduce the risk. “It allows as long as possible (the park) to be open and safety conditions are guaranteed. Only 1% of the time be closed and, during that closure, 80.7% of the branches and trees fall. It is a weighted measure,” argues Borja Carabante.

The Consistory Calculate That about 68% of the specimens of El Retiro are mature and in August 2024 66 trees and branches fell due to heat. On the modification of the protocol, the Almeida government insists that changing or not the plan should not respond to a political decision, but technical. The idea, They emphasizeIt is “to guarantee security and compatible it with the use and enjoyment of parks.”

Images | Madrid City Council and Ra_fus (Flickr)

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