By Bejay Browne
ECOLOGISTS and environmentalists are up in arms after 350 trees have been felled in recent days at Timi forest, close to Paphos airport.
Forestry department officials say they carried out the action, which was licensed, following complaints made by airport operator Hermes, that birds nesting in the trees are creating a risk to the safety of aircraft using the facility.
Hermes spokesman Adamos Aspris told the Cyprus Mail the decision to cut the trees wasn’t taken lightly and only as a last resort. He stressed the request to remove the trees was made after a study was carried out at the site which raised a number of safety issues concerning the birds.
“We were unhappy to cut trees and this is not something we wished to do. However, a recent study indicated that there is a reasonable risk of bird strikes which have occurred involving aircraft landing and taking off.”
Aspris said the findings were submitted to the Forestry department and the Ministry of communications and works to be evaluated.
“Their feedback was in agreement that the tress should be cut,” he said.
But Paphos District secretary of the Hermes spokesman Adamos Aspris, Andreas Constantinou said the reasons given for cutting the trees – some of which were hundreds of years old – are only excuses and more should have been done to save the trees and move the birds.
“In other areas ‘deep trimming’ of the trees has been possible. This means that the tree lives, it grows at a lower level and won’t attract birds. The area has been demolished and the real reasons for their removal will be apparent in a few years. Perhaps more building will take place here,” he said.
Constantinou said the felling took place over a three day period last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. “These sorts of actions are always carried out at weekends as it’s impossible to get information and officials are unavailable.”
The forestry department’s chief conservator Takis Tsintides said permission to cut the trees was only granted after exhaustive measures to move the birds had failed.
“I was informed by the game service that they had used a number of methods to try and discourage the birds from concentrating in this area, such as loud noises and so on. But everything failed,” he said.
Tsintides said 134 large eucalyptus trees and 200 Cypress trees had been removed.
“This was very painful for us,” he said, “I received a complaint on Monday about these actions, but there was nothing else which the forestry department could do. It was a matter of safety.”
“The airport operator has agreed to plant a substantial number of indigenous trees – which we will recommend – at a different area further away from the airstrip,” he added.
The new trees would be planted in the coming winter months.
