Madrid’s largest tree planting campaign ever has restored its biosphere

The city’s forests were severely damaged during last year’s Filomena storm

At the beginning of last year, the Filomena cyclone battered the Iberian Peninsula causing massive damage to Madrid’s greenery infrastructure. The storm destroyed more than 80,000 trees in the city, but the capital has bounced back marvelously. The local authorities announced that between October 2021 and May 2022, some 90,620 trees have been planted on the territory more than making up for the loss caused by the storm.

That tree planting campaign has thus entered the records as the largest in scope in the history of Madrid. And it’s not even finished. The goal is to reach 100,000 trees, as promised by Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida last summer. The replanting of the remaining trees will resume in October.

Restoring the valuable green heritage

Yesterday morning, Mayor Martínez-Almeida visited the Lineal del Manzanares Park, where 176 trees had been planted. Checking out the work done, he shared some thoughts on the progress of the project and some numbers.

He stressed that the Spanish capital had now added 5,500 new trees on its streets and that now more than 50% of the streets had this type of green infrastructure. He also added that Madrid had “more than 3,800 green areas, historical parks and forest parks for the enjoyment of and use of all residents”.

The arboreal stock of the municipality counts 1.74 million trees of more than 500 different species, which are located in nearly 5,000 tree-lined streets and more than 6,000 hectares of green areas. 

The Filomena storm caused damage to 800,000 trees, which represents 46% of the total, and of these, 10%, that is, 80,000 trees, (or 4.6% of the total) fell or had to be felled. The majority, more than 60,000, were in the Casa de Campo green area, where there was an especially large population of trees.

The new plantations have been carried out following the criteria and guidelines established by the experts of the Tree Advisory Council. The latter is a body created in April 2021 to scientifically guide the municipal government in terms of protection, conservation and improvement of trees.

"Filomena gave us the opportunity to reflect on the trees in Madrid, and for this reason, we created a Tree Advisory Council, made up of technicians and experts who have guided us in planting these trees and introducing species other than those we had," added the mayor.

Following the experts’ advice, the most suitable species have been selected for each location, taking into account up to twenty variables (dimension, climatic factors, resilience to pests and diseases, heritage, cultural, environmental, social and economic criteria, type of soil, and others).