Close to 40 trees were recently planted in Salina by Melita Limited employees who donated their time and money to do something tangible for the environment.
The event at the Salina Nature Park, organised to coincide with EU Sustainability Week, ties in with one of The Melita Foundation projects, to fund the planting of 1,000 trees through the Saġġar Project.
Saġġar is an ambitious project that aims to sow and plant a million trees and shrubs of the native genotype and rehabilitate ecological reserves, public land and private lands.
Most of the saplings planted at Salina’s Nature Park are Tamarix africana Poir (1789) — African Tamarisk or Bruka in Maltese — which are indigenous to the Maltese Islands and inhabit marshlands and coastal habitats.
These trees are well suited to Salina, with its brackish water. In the summer, when the salt content in the water is very high, the roots absorb the water and eliminate the salt from their leaves.
The trees at the park, which is managed by BirdLife Malta, will provide the perfect habitat for the different resident and migrating birds that choose to rest and nest in the nature reserve, as well as shielding the birds from light and noise pollution from the nearby roads and buildings.
