New walking trail in Gran Canaria, through the unique red eucalyptus trees of Valsequillo

The Cabildo de Gran Canaria, through its Ministry of the Environment, has created a new path that runs through the unique forest of red eucalyptus trees found at the bottom of the Barranco de San Miguel, in Valsequillo.

This grove is made up of around 70 red eucalyptus trees, which occupy a wide sector of the bottom of the ravine and rise from the very base with several thick trunks with a whitish bark, which appear not to have undergone significant pruning, which gives them their main singularity. In addition, its canopies shade this area of ​​the eastern midlands of Gran Canaria, which is of enormous ethnographic and landscape interest.

Works on the walking path took place between February 21 and March 18, 2022, and consisted of creating a proper walking path through this fragment of 'Australian forest'. 

In total, about 480 linear meters of  trail have been built, in an action that will be completed with the placement of two information panels, whose approximate cost has been about 9,000 euros.

Of the group of these 70 trees, the technicians of the Ministry of the Environment consider as unique due to their size a number of around 27, most of them with multiple trunks, whose base perimeters range from 3 to 14.7 meters, with perimeters of the trunk at the height of 1.30 that reach 10.7 meters and with up to 32 meters high and crown diameters that range between 16 and 34 meters.

The mayor, Francisco Atta, has pointed out that this minimal intervention in the territory "values ​​this eucalyptus grove that we have in the municipality and is in line with an element of balance, of protecting and conserving the entire environment, and of making visible these magnificent specimens that we have in Valsequillo”.

It should be remembered that the Ministry of the Environment of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, with the collaboration of the Fundación Canaria Universitaria de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the Inserta Dual Training Program, began in 2018 the preparation of an inventory of these trees that can be considered of insular and local interest. Initially, there were more than 400 specimens on the list and it's considered as one of the most complete databases that have been made of this natural heritage. 273 specimens of trees have been identified and located, of which 85 have finally been selected, which are the ones that constitute the base proposal.