This Yvelines park should lose 50 of its trees but residents are opposed to it

In Houilles (Yvelines), a felling of trees divides. The municipality plans to redesign the Charles-de-Gaulle park and cut down around fifty plants, including large chestnut trees, sometimes century-old. Opponents of this project gathered this Tuesday to welcome with banners the elected officials meeting for a municipal council, reports The Parisian this Sunday.

The cutting of certain trees began in the spring and is scheduled to continue into October. To justify its choice, the Town Hall published two videos where it is explained that the park “has lost its vocation as a green lung over the years”, in particular because of diseases. The desire to grow “new species adapted to climate change” was also exposed.

A petition with 500 signatories

Anti-felling activists, for their part, launched a petition which collected 500 signatures and highlighted a phytosanitary study commissioned by the city in 2023, which concludes that only seven trees must disappear. Opponents demand the application of the recommendations communicated, that is to say a renewal over several decades.