Social activist Esther Solano has launched a movement to collect signatures calling for the state congress to initiate a juicio politico (impeachment proceeding) against Chapala Mayor Javier Degollado for allowing the massive butchering of local trees.
She is likewise demanding the dismissal of the municipality’s ecology director, Rafael Aguilar Dueñez and José Luis Hernández García, the parks and gardens chief.
The mayor this week declared the allegations were unfounded, based on subjective opinion with no scientific evidence.
Solano accuses the government of destroying more than 50 of the city’s trees solely for the purpose of making space to carry out public works, including the Plazoleta de la Amistad Internacional in the median strip opposite City Hall, the Paseo de los Ausentes walkway on the south side of the municipal market and future construction of Chapala Adventure Park on the grounds of Cristiania Park.
Tree trimming and felling in the park emerged as a topic of public controversy early this year as the government began clearing the park to install headquarters for February’s Carnaval festivities. At that time city officials explained that the only trees that were touched were those requiring pruning for healthier growth or removal due to disease.
But what really got Solano fired up was the recent discovery that nearly two dozen trees planted along the median strip of Avenida González Gallo have been chopped down to ground level stumps.
Early this week Degollado and Aguilar acknowledged that the extermination of 22 mature poplars and one casuarinas was necessary due to infestations of fungi and muérdago, a type of parasitic mistletoe, and factors such as ground suffocation caused by overplanting in the confined spaces of cement planters and poor maintenance practices.
They supported the posture with a seven-page finding issued on May 2 by Green Cover de Occidente, a professional tree care outfit based in Guadalajara. According to the experts, a large number of trees spanning the entire length of the broad avenue were in imminent danger of losing major branches or falling down completely.
Aguilar also showed a report drawing the same conclusions that a different company provided to his predecessor in the ecology office. He noted the previous administration took no action to remedy the situation.
Similar problems have been detected in the Nuevo Chapala subdivision where the Degollado family resides. And there is concern that 50 percent of the city’s tree population may be afflicted with some kind of life-threatening disease.
On Thursday afternoon the mayor’s press office sent out the announcement of a major reforestation campaign that will kick off Sunday, June 5, 9 a.m., in Cristiania Park. The goal is to plant and propitiate the survival of 2,000 new trees, principally endemic and flowering species, throughout the entire municipality.