Managing a city of 170,000 souls, streets, fountains, conflicts, businesses, museums, its zoo and its castle is exactly what Mónica Pacheco Skidmore (Oaxaca, 58 years) does.
Only souls are trees.
She is the head of the Bosque de Chapultepec, the great urban park in Mexico City, twice the size of New York's Central Park and one of the 10 largest in the world, where 20 million people pass through there in any given year.
In times of pandemic, it is time to vaccinate and the borer is now a great challenge for the forest health of this immense 759-hectare lung.
There are specimens that are more than 800 years old, but it is a matter of caring for them all and some 5,000 have already been vaccinated.
And so many others have been felled that were “dead standing”.
Between squirrels, flowers and lakes this woman performs every day,
who feels privileged: "I work in the best office in the world."
Does she feel like Little Red Riding Hood?
"Yes".
Ask.
Does this forest have legends?
Response.
It is an iconic forest, full of legends, stories, stories, anecdotes.
One that really impacted me was when a photographer came to ask permission to take pictures of everyday life in the forest and we started interviewing people.
There was a man who had left prison and on his first day out he came to Chapultepec to feel freedom.
I believe that Chapultepec brings together history, mysticism, identity.
Here the upper and lower classes coexist.
I think it is the most democratic space in the city.
Q.
What does Chapultepec have that makes it different from other parks in the world?
R.
That it is centenary.
In pre-Hispanic times, the chronicles already spoke of a space of tranquility, of calm.
It has an archaeological zone and an archaeologist dedicated to it.
In Chapultepec all the most important historical processes of the city have taken place.
P.
They say that there are very wild areas where packs of feral dogs do their thing.
R.
It is a little problem that we have in the third section.
In that area some people abandon their pets and others come and feed them, it's hard for me to understand that they call themselves animal protectors.
They also leave the turtles in the lakes and throw out the little fish they no longer want.
And yes, the packs grew.
But we have carried out a very important forest clean-up and that has reduced their pressure.
We removed up to 600 tires, more than 400 tons of garbage, we removed a world.
Q.
What would Mexico City be without Chapultepec?
R.
It would have another temperature.
Here there are between two or three degrees less.
And more pollution.
We have begun to see animals that were not seen before, turtles, opossums.
There are even fireflies, which indicates that the environmental condition is good, despite the number of people who visit it, 200,000 last Sunday.
P.
The pandemic influenced that.
A.
Yes, it was good for the park, but it was a mistake to close it.
We learned that.
This is a space of freedom, especially for women.
P.
Have you considered that perhaps you have to moderate the visits?
A.
We have recently revised the load capacity.
We try to see how we distribute it.
We know that the forest is a great attraction for the inhabitants, 55% of whom come from the east in the city and it is the zoo that attracts 67%.
In Iztapalapa, for example, a large urban park has been built, which serves as a counterweight.
Despite this, people continue to come: we have many visitors from the State of Mexico, from the metropolitan area, we are seeing how we open other areas of interest to distribute the flow.
We have many acres.
P.
On the other hand, there is the traffic, huge roads that cross it, with all its pollution.
At first, it was thought of burying those roads, something that was later ruled out.
R.
The possibility of burying the tracks was evaluated, but there are times when the conditions of the city do not allow it.
Those roads are not only traffic, but also social barriers.
We have to compensate with new pedestrian lanes that do not force you to carry your bicycle to pass, for example.
Q.
How many trees do you have in the hospital right now?
R.
Some, but not so many.
See those little white buttons on their trunks?
We are vaccinating the trees.
We have the plague of palm trees, and the borer and the bark beetle, we have already carried out some 10,600 endotherapies in 2020, and removed some 6,000 dead bodies.
Some neighbors did not see it well, they said it was still life.
Yeah, as long as they don't fall on you, right?
And with the light the Mexican dahlia began to come out, a species that hadn't come out, and the bees.
In two years we have planted almost 52,000 specimens between trees and shrubs
Q.
Do the heads of the large urban parks meet?
R.
The truth is that no, because it would be good.
I'd love to.
Q.
How much water does this place need?
R.
Oops.
Quite.
We have a treatment plant very close.
I don't have any information, but I'd be happy to get it for you.
They tell us why there is no more grass (grass) as in London there is grass, as in London.
But if in Texas or California grass is already being prohibited due to lack of water.
It is not sustainable.
Its not this.
This is a temporary forest, when it is yellow, it is yellow.
We had an 80% survival of last year's reforestation and right now we are starting another one.
[Later they will report that "the Chapultepec Wastewater Treatment Plant provides 40 liters per second for filling the four lakes that serve as temporary storage for an average of 20 million cubic meters of water"]
Q.
How do earthquakes affect the forest?
R.
Once one of the lakes fractured and a hole opened and fish began to sneak through it.
Everyone came out to rescue them.
It was due to a natural movement of earth, it is a mine zone.
Q.
What would you like for your forest?
R.
I imagine a very clean space, where we could see culture, where nature and culture flow.
Workshops, more scientific dissemination…
Q.
And wouldn't they remove that advertising that food businesses do with microphones and speakers?
A.
We are working on that.
That is a complicated subject.
In Chapultepec there has always been commerce, historically, there are merchants of four generations.
But there were 1,500 stalls and now we have 620. We are going to change the whole image, the furniture.
Q.
Why isn't alcohol sold in Chapultepec?
R.
It is a family space… We have had incidents that are not very suitable for a family, I do not know if I explain myself.
I am very clear that alcohol enters, we have spaces with a lot of freedom, for young people, but it is difficult to put together those spaces.
But I have a bigger problem with all the dog handlers, you put the shots in the trees for the pests and they destroy everything.
Q.
Are squirrels a problem pest here, like at the university?
R.
The problem is that people feed them and they even become aggressive.
Suddenly the squirrel jumps out at you and wants to take your food.
But we have them pretty well under control.
I am more concerned about the fish, because they abandon them and on top of that they feed them.
And unsuitable conditions for water are created.
So we should be putting a little on our part, right?
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