Concrete and Water Are Damaging Montenegro’s Oldest Olive Tree

Stara Maslina harvest

Altogether, the com­pany pro­duced olive oil from care­fully picked fruits only from Stara Maslina, which the munic­i­pal­ity of Bar gifted to selected guests, includ­ing King Charles III and his wife, Camila, in 2016 when he was still the Prince of Wales.

When the Bar munic­i­pal assem­bly put the study on the pro­tec­tion of Stara Maslina up for pub­lic dis­cus­sion four years ago, only the Bar Olive Growers Association sub­mit­ted writ­ten com­ments.

“Our first remark was that the con­crete threat­ens Stara Maslina and that the water it col­lects can per­ma­nently endan­ger its roots,” Alković said.

Unfortunately, the grow­ers’ warn­ing, some of whom have a 300-year fam­ily tra­di­tion of olive grow­ing, was not taken seri­ously.

“Also, at the begin­ning of the sum­mer of 2023, we pointed out the prob­lem of the with­er­ing of Stara Maslina, that is, the prob­lem of exces­sive water in its root sys­tem,” Alković said.

However, few peo­ple took the association’s warn­ing seri­ously. ​“Only Mirko Bujišić, assis­tant direc­tor of the Bar Cultural Center, wanted us to do some­thing, and he was the only one who tried to remove water from the root sys­tem since we did not have per­mis­sion to inter­vene, even though we knew what needed to be done,” Alković said.

In August 2023, Dušan Raičević, the pres­i­dent of the Bar munic­i­pal­ity, formed a com­mis­sion to man­age Stara Maslina, which did not include mem­bers of the Bar Olive Growers Association.

“Since then, the asso­ci­a­tion has had no infor­ma­tion about what is being done and how it is being done,” Alković said. ​“Even more wor­ry­ing is that the pres­i­dent formed the com­mis­sion in August, and the inter­ven­tion was expected to start in January next year. Those addi­tional five months in the water must have con­tributed to addi­tional dam­age to the roots.”

He believes that the drainage ditch con­struc­tion and pump instal­la­tion were suc­cess­ful. However, Alković adds that there is still water on the ground, albeit much less than before, but more than would be advis­able.

Like most olive grow­ers, he sug­gested remov­ing excess water from the root sys­tem; although recent inter­ven­tions have yielded results, the prob­lem has not been com­pletely solved.

“Our pro­posal is also the gen­eral pub­lic’s: to remove the con­crete ring around the Stara Maslina and the con­crete walls sur­round­ing the tree and to cre­ate the pre­req­ui­sites for the water to drain nat­u­rally,” Alković said.

He cites one of the old­est olive trees in neigh­bor­ing Croatia, Brijuni National Park, as an exam­ple. A sim­ple wooden fence sur­rounds it, and it is an incom­pa­ra­bly more sig­nif­i­cant tourist attrac­tion.

Alković also thinks the con­struc­tion of the tick­et­ing build­ing, which is meant to block the view of the tree from the street, pre­vents sun­light from reach­ing the tree’s base and has allowed weeds, includ­ing ole­an­der, to grow, which can also be harm­ful to the tree.

The Bar Olive Growers Association has an entirely dif­fer­ent approach and believes that the Stara Maslina should be open to view, not hid­den.

“The whole com­plex would cer­tainly be much nicer if the con­crete was removed and the grass was allowed to beau­tify the space,” Alković said.

“We are sure Stara Maslina would con­tinue to live and could be a big­ger tourist attrac­tion if the con­crete around it were removed,” he added. ​“We should also remove the ole­an­der that sur­rounds it, which we know can be harm­ful.”

Source link : https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/business/europe/concrete-and-water-are-damaging-montenegros-oldest-olive-tree/132139

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Publish date : 2024-06-10 07:00:00

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