Zgierz. They drilled the holes and injected something. The trees have withered. “Deliberate murder”

Two employees of Primary School No. 1 in Zgierz were fined for the fact that they drowned the trees in front of the facility and injected something. After three years they wither. A specialist from the Botanical Garden in Łódź called the event “a premeditated murder on trees.”

The incident occurred on April 14, 2022 at the school at Piłsudskiego Street in Zgierz. The social activist and founder of the “Zielony Zgierz” fan page on Facebook, Krzysztof Wojtalik noticed a disturbing situation. He managed to record everything with a car camera. – I saw the unusual action of two men. They stood with a battery drill and a syringe, drilled larch trunks growing near the school. City guards rode ahead of me, who probably did not notice it. I stopped behind the guards several hundred Mers further and informed about this situation and what I know, they went to the place – said the social worker. – After a few months I saw that the condition of the trees is getting worse, there were fewer and fewer needles every year, and this year the trees were cut out. The situation is infamous that it was right at school, it was after 8 o'clock, there were lessons. People who should set an example to children, how to respect nature, they simply murdered these trees before their eyes – added Wojtalik.

Punished

Zgierska commandant city ​​guard He confirmed that on that day “a registration had been reported that there was probably damage and destruction by drilling the tree trunk and injecting an unknown substance into a tree trunk.” – Patrol confirmed the damage to two trees, specifically two large larchs. He found two perpetrators, employees of a nearby primary school, who injected substances into these trees. In connection with this situation, they were punished with maximum fines – PLN 500 each – informs Dariusz Bereżewski. At that time, it was difficult to say if this situation would hurt the trees. – Today we know that these trees, unfortunately, died. A year after the incident, they were partly dead, after another they were practically no longer able to function, in which they were cut. How did these trees bother, I don't know? This will probably become the secret of these two men – adds Bereżewski. By the way, it turned out that the growing nearby lime was also damaged. The police, who conducted the proceedings in this case, discontinued them due to the fact that the perpetrators were not detected.

A firm reaction of the City Hall

We tried to talk to the school management about the event. The deputy director of the facility did not want to comment on the case, she sent us to the director, who was on vacation. So we asked the City Hall in Zgierz. As it turned out, officials knew nothing. – We condemn every ecological vandalism, and we consider the behavior of tree poisoners at SP 1 as this kind of act. We are all the more sorry that it happened at the school, where children are taught respect for nature, while the behavior of technical employees of the institution was a complete negation. The City Guard in Zgierz rightly punished the perpetrators with maximum fines, and because in the following years two of the three trees have withered, we do not consider the subject closed. We are now checking whether it is possible to impose an administrative penalty on the perpetrators. The school was also obliged to make substitute plantings – the spokeswoman of the office, Renata Karolewska, told us. You must apply for permission to cut trees either to the City Hall or Poviat Eldership. Even if the office issued a positive decision, he would have to look closely. – We usually do not consent to felling healthy trees. It is necessary to argue well why they are to be cut out. We go to the place and examine their circuit, whether they have any disease or they do not partially dry. If everything is fine with such a tree, then we do not agree – informs us a member of the board of the Zgierz poviat, Justyna Romanow -Przybylak.

“Murder of trees deliberately”

We also asked Dorota Mańkowska, head of the Botanical Garden in Łódź, who in a conversation with us no doubt. “It's a deliberate murder of trees,” he says. – In Polish law we have such provisions in the Act on nature protection, which protect trees and to really cut the tree, and especially large, you have to work on it and we do not have a guarantee whether the appropriate office that gives permission will agree. Such consent is very rarely issued if the tree is large, spreading and in good health condition. So people who care very much that these trees are removed from a given place go to such – let's be honest – bandit methods, because letting the poison, this is an evident killing of the tree premeditated – commented Dorota Mańkowska. – If this situation is documented, if these people were caught by the hand, I think that raw consequences should be drawn to them – she added.

Each tree is worth its weight in gold

Dorota Mańkowska explains that there is no research on whether the tree that is poisoned in this way suffers, but as he says, “plants are undoubtedly living organisms.” – The fact that they have a completely different appearance than animals, that they are not mobile, it does not mean that they are dead organisms. On the contrary, every year they revive, bloom, and make fruit. Undoubtedly, the action we talked about earlier is simply killing deliberately with a living organism – he emphasizes.

– For every tree – especially in the current situation, when the climate changes, with a huge drought, storms that break them – we should take care of. No matter if it is lime, larch or oak. Each is at a premium, because you have to remember that they give us oxygen, but also shadow and humidity. If someone from the hot meadow then enters the forest, then you do not have to be an outstanding specialist that then you physically feel relief and the moisture that is kept by trees, because the Earth does not evaporate so much that there is a lower temperature, so all trees are at a premium, especially those that grow in the area of ​​cities – she summed up.