"In Haifa there is a massive felling of trees compared to other places"
On the one hand, the trees give quality of life to the residents, on the other hand, there is the claim that contractors cannot build housing units and make a profit, when many trees remain in the lots. Councilor and entrepreneur Jacob Feingold: "Trees are important, but urban renewal is just as important."
"Thousands of trees have been cut down in Haifa since the last elections, when the mayor took office," claims the chairman of Haifa's Green faction, Avihu Hahn.
"The hand is light on the trigger," he says. "In the past two years, thousands of trees have been uprooted in Haifa with the approval of the municipality. There is no body in the engineering directorate whose job it is to produce construction solutions under the principle of preserving trees. I raised the issue with queries and suggestions for order, and unfortunately the municipality does not implement any of the ideas and suggestions I raised. Many cities in Israel are fighting to preserve the trees in the urban space. Haifa Surrendered to the non-shifting real estate construction plans."
save the trees
Shai Hershko is a geographer, an environmentalist, an activist on the issue of trees and maps felling licenses throughout the country. Hershko is very disturbed by the amount of trees cut down in Haifa in 2021. "In Haifa there is a massive cutting down of trees compared to other cities. From the beginning of the year until last Thursday (9/12/21) 1,900 trees were cut down. On Route 22 near Nahal Saadia a large amount of trees were cut down, over 100 trees.
To the south of the Sami Ofer stadium there was a military base and they want to cut down several hundred trees there as well. Many trees are cut down for infrastructure and construction. I tried to cancel the licenses and failed. Sometimes I am contacted to prevent the felling of trees. There is a license to cut down trees and in the beginning right after the license is issued, you can file an appeal with the Ministry of Agriculture and that way there is a chance to save the tree. But it is better already at the planning stage itself, even before the license is issued, to try to change those who are going to cut down trees. Almost every construction project affects trees. When you go to do a TAMA, if there are trees in the area, you immediately resort to cutting them down, but if you have performed a TAMA, it is important to try to preserve the trees."
Trees are a national resource
"There are some Haifa activists who deal a lot with trees. Along with us, activists who deal with the wadis also work. In Haifa there is one forestry official who does what the municipal authority tells him and not according to the spirit of the law. The spirit of the law comes to protect the trees. The law sees trees as a national resource. At the time of the mandate it was A resource of the king and today it is a resource of the state. The officials don't see it that way. And for you, we reached 1,900 trees only in 2021."
You need to understand the complexity of cutting down the trees. The municipality decides in every construction project which trees should be preserved and which trees should be cut down. For example, in the construction clearance project in Sderot Zvi that was inhabited a few months ago, it was decided on a number of trees to be preserved. The contractor is required to build the project while preserving these trees.
In order for there to be construction in the city, you have to find the delicate balance, where both the developer and the apartment buyers will be satisfied. Without profit for the developer and subsequently the contractor, they will give up on the project, which will lead to a loss for the city and its residents.
find the balance
Jacob Feingold has two hats. On the one hand a council member and on the other hand an entrepreneur. "I think that each complex should be looked at on its own. There is a solution of relocating trees or planting them elsewhere, trees are important, but urban development is no less important. A city cannot exist without construction, and there is no reason for this to be at the expense of trees and greenery, which contribute to quality Life. You just have to find the balances, so that everyone will be satisfied in the end."
In the project on Sderot Zvi in the center of Carmel, tenants in the adjacent building claimed that not enough trees were designated as trees for preservation. They also feared that the contractor would not preserve the trees as they were set for preservation, because they are located in a way that made it very difficult to build the project.
develop and maintain
If so, it is true that a city should strive to develop, but this does not mean that on the way there it is permissible to run over any natural resource. Along with the need to build and renew, it is imperative to preserve the environment and the quality of life for all of us, a large part of which is derived from preserving trees.
Why save trees at all?
Beyond the ornamentation, shade and grace that trees provide to the urban environment, they have tremendous advantages in many other ways: It is known that trees significantly reduce the pollution of the air we breathe (and who needs this more than the residents of Haifa?), they have the ability to lower the temperature and cool their surroundings (global warming, anyone?). Trees also act as an "acoustic wall", when they absorb noises in their surroundings, and yes, the roots of mature trees can significantly moderate the effect of earthquakes. These are only a small number of the enormous benefits that trees provide and that we all lose when they are cut down.
When you cut down a mature tree that has been growing for decades or more, there is irreversible damage that will be paid for by many generations after us. This is not to say that contractors and entrepreneurs should be prevented or made difficult to build, but a broad and comprehensive thinking is required that takes into account the whole picture, with tree preservation high on its priority list.
The municipality's response:
In Haifa, hundreds of thousands of trees of different types and species are in charge of the forestry official.
The municipality does not allow the felling of trees except in exceptional cases and with no other choice, and everything in accordance with the provisions of the law.
In order to cut down a protected tree, an application must be submitted to the forestry official in accordance with the various legal provisions. Each application is carefully examined according to professional considerations concerning its condition, age, rarity, dimensions, location and the environmental and ecological scenic value of the protected tree in accordance with the Forestry Ordinance and the procedure of the Forestry Official.
Every request is published on the municipality's website on the tree felling requests page in order to allow anyone interested in this to object and appeal to the National Forestry Official on any permit.
It seems as if there is a deliberate cutting down of trees in the streets without any justification. Apparently some felling contractor is paid for felling so he just clears the city of trees
The great slaughter of the trees in Haifa is about to begin. About 170 amazing olive trees, some of them very thick and seem to be hundreds of years old, are facing removal from the city along with hundreds of other trees (altogether about 1,000 trees) and all in order to start the next scandal in the city of Haifa - the southern entrances plan B. Neot Peres Darom. The Hef/2000 plan, the overall outline plan for the city of Haifa (coming into effect in March 2019) established an urban park with an area of at least 100 dunams in the area of the southern entrances plan B - and all around Nahal Amiram - with the intention of saving the stream from elimination, similar to all the other streams that descend from the Carmel ridge and which were destroyed and turned into underground concrete canals - the plan for the southern entrances, surprisingly, stipulates that the same park will not be built in an area of over 100 dunams - the Amiram stream will be eliminated together with the Ovadia stream which is also included and eliminated within the plan - the trees will be removed after respect - and the olive trees must The antiques are in demand in prestigious villas and mansions outside the city of Haifa, all for full money; What about the trees in Haifa? What about the streams and wadis? - They received a stamp of 'Destined for extermination' and no one from the city's finances is working to correct the distortion - the severe and unnecessary damage to nature - only the writer of these lines is trying to change the situation, the appeal I submitted to the Supreme Court against the severe damage to nature will be heard soon - and the chances are extremely low - the reason is There is not a single source of the city's income here who stands up and says - wait - stop - fix the plan - all the greens of all kinds - all the nature lovers who were elected to the city council and those who serve as civil servants in the planning authorities - everyone is silent - everyone's mouth is full of water - they accept in surrender the destruction of nature which is completely unnecessary and they are not helping me with the appeal and in general everything is in the way of elimination and unnecessary and severe damage to nature - it is possible to plan and build differently - it is possible to protect nature - even when building a residential neighborhood - in practice it is of no interest to any of the city's breadwinners - it is of no interest to any of the professional bodies working in the service of the State of Israel and in the service Haifa municipality - protection of nature on the planet - the climate conference and other matters are only good for rhetoric - for empty slogans - the reality is simple - destruction and destruction.
The response of all members of Siat Chaim in Haifa who promised to preserve our urban nature cannot be obtained
Everyone is silent like fish in an aquarium because they know they have deceived their voters in every area they promised
And we are not talking about the phenomenon of entrepreneurs/renovators who worry about the death of the tree and then have to cut it down.... or excision without permission with the backing of the municipality in retrospect
The felling of trees is only part of the systematic destruction of the unique fabric of the city's neighborhoods!
It seems that the mayor needs to learn urban planning... And those who actually plan the city are the contractors and entrepreneurs whose representatives occupy quite a few seats in the city council.
Kalish promised in her leaflets that she would establish an urban nature department and protect the forests and the trees in the city.
Promises separately and reality separately.
Klish promised in her manifestos that Tama 38 plans that slide into wadis and leave no spaces for gardens will be cancelled.
Promises separately and reality separately.
Kalish promised a lot of things, everyone who was at her meetings left with a whole bag of promises for the preservation of Haifa's nature. She and her advisors promised a lot of things. 3 years have passed and nothing happened. Without an order from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the landfill in Nahal Ovadia would not have been cleaned a little either. They did not prevent further quarries throughout the city and the promotion of plans to completely destroy more whole wadis.
There is no one to protect nature in the city council.
And there is no one to defend the preservation of the green landscape in the city council.
All her promises are thrown away.
The municipality, as usual, spends and does not take care of preserving the trees in Haifa. A tree takes 20 years to grow and grow. Every Yad tree cutting permit requires the contractor to plant 4 large trees, with regular watering for the first few years, not tiny saplings, most of which do not survive
The cutting down of the trees during Yahav's days did not stop during the days of Einat Kalish, Nachshon Tzuk, Michi Alfer, what's more, the city engineer is the same engineer whose hand was easy with cutting permits and almost zero enforcement on cutting criminals, most of whom are contractors who knew they wouldn't do anything to them. Even the legal counsel of the municipality really does not consider it important to deal with such criminality and to set clear boundaries for the contractors. It seems that actually the situation has only gotten worse and it starts with the planning of the appearance of the city and the streets which simply does not exist in the current government, how disappointing.... You can count on one hand the number of members of the local committee, who as you know are the elected officials - who really fight for the trees in Haifa!
There are pine trees that are a nuisance of glue dirt and needles and iztobals that fall on a parked car causing damage to both the paint and the trash. It is a very flammable wood. Needles that fall in the garden cannot grow anything there. Crows nest on the pine. These trees are Mitzvah to cut down. Only the municipality is not aware of it. It is a shame that other trees are cut down because they are also needed to clean the air.