The town hall of Paris undertakes to review the felling of trees in its projects

On the proposal of elected environmentalists, allies of the PS mayor Anne Hidalgo, the Parisian executive undertakes to proceed, this summer, to the "re-examination of the forecasts for the felling of trees in urban projects under development", according to the text adopted by the Council of Paris.

"We are now aiming for a goal of zero felling in the context of urban projects, whether it is public transport, housing or public facilities", assured Christophe Najdovski, deputy (PS and related) for green spaces , which promises "a shift in urban practices that have been in place for decades".

Mr. Najdovski thus undertakes to review the Porte de Montreuil project (XXth arrondissement) "to reduce the impact on the existing tree heritage and even increase its space" with 200 additional trees.

At the end of April, the associations France Nature Environnement (FNE) Paris and the National Tree Monitoring Group (GNSA) had denounced the felling by the City of 77 trees near the ring road, in this district of eastern Paris.

As for the OnE project of revegetation and pedestrianization of the surroundings of the Eiffel Tower, which was to entail the felling of around twenty trees at the foot of the Iron Lady, which the town hall gave up at the beginning of May in the face of the media breakthrough of the opponents , the balance sheet is now "zero felling for 223 trees planted", underlines the biodiversity assistant.

The left-wing majority rejected three other wishes from the right-wing and center opposition. Catherine Ibled (LREM) underlined a "paradox between the speeches and the actions" of Anne Hidalgo, whose absence David Alphand (LR) denounced in the session "on a subject that is eminently important for Paris, especially when we pride ourselves on 'to be an eco-environmentalist mayor'.

"We have never planted as many trees as since the start of this mandate", replied Christophe Najdvoski, according to whom the capital has since 2020 around 38.000 more trees, including "more than 18.000 on the embankments of the ring road, more 12.000 in the woods of Boulogne and Vincennes and 4.700 in intramural Paris.

The Tree Plan wanted by Anne Hidalgo provides for the planting of 170.000 additional trees by the end of her mandate in 2026. She had also promised "urban forests" in emblematic places in the capital.

An activist perched on a tree to warn about their protection

The founder of an association for the protection of trees settled on an old plane tree at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, in Paris, to demand the cancellation of the project of small semi-buried buildings of the town hall and a law to limit the tree cuts.

On the night of Sunday to Monday May 30, Thomas Brail, 47, arborist-climber in the Tarn and founder of the National Tree Monitoring Group (GNSA), hoisted himself up with a harness and ropes on a plane tree considered to be bicentenary by the opponents of the OnE project of the town hall of Paris.

It planned to cut down around twenty trees at the foot of the Iron Lady in order to build luggage storage for customers and premises for employees. But the mobilization at the end of April of opponents to the project forced PS mayor Anne Hidalgo to guarantee that no trees would be cut down.

The elected socialist has not given up on the project, however, part of a broader project of revegetation and pedestrianization of the axis between the Trocadero and the Champ-de-Mars.

Thomas Brail "intends to stay hooked until the mayor of Paris withdraws the construction project planned around the Eiffel Tower, which risks damaging the roots of certain trees, including this plane tree", assured Monday the journalist Hugo Clément , came to support the arborist.