Orce Nikolov Street looks sad after they cut down some of the old and, as the authorities say, sick and hollow trees from the tree lines. Naked, abandoned and soulless. The Municipality of Centar promises to plant new trees in place of the cut ones. But it will take years and years for them to grow and develop canopies, to cool off in the warm months with their shadows and to provide all the other benefits that greenery gives to the life of a city.

Unfortunately, trees also have their own lifespan. They are getting old, they are getting sick, their branches and trees are drying up and, realistically, some of them really pose a danger to the citizens with a slightly stronger wind. It is known that after every storm in Skopje, most of the reports from the citizens are due to broken and fallen branches of trees and uprooted trees.

What has been a mystery to the citizens over the years is who exactly cares and who determines the condition of the trees that are part of the public green fund of the city. How is it determined whether they are sick or healthy, how is that assessment made? Are the people who put their signatures on the minutes from the inspection of Orce Nikolov's trees skilled enough to do so? Has a phytopathological analysis been performed? Was an attempt made to treat the diseased trees before they reached a stage in which the only solution was - the saw.

The city and the municipalities are constantly calling for transparency, for cooperation with the citizens, supposedly working on the principle - there is nothing to hide, everything is public. Unfortunately, the transparency of local governments is a very "stretchable" term and is adjusted as needed. That is, they are transparent in their work as much as they want to say, and not as much as the citizens (who, in fact, are their voters) want and have the right to know.

In the last case with the cut trees of Orce Nikolov, the complete answers did not reach the people of Skopje. At first, the residents alerted about what was happening on the street, and then various associations and initiatives that take care of the healthy life in the city reacted, the media started asking, and even at the protest they demanded "the chickens to calm down", and finally the City decided to publish the documents, ie the issued cutting decisions.

That "documentation" consists of two requests from the Municipality of Centar for cutting dry trees, two decisions by which Mayor Shilegov approves to cut 16 trees and a report of an inspection signed by two - one from the Department of Communal Affairs of the City of Skopje and one of the "Parks and Greenery". In fact, they judged the trees, which they found to be completely dry and their bark cracked.

It is not known whether these people are experts and how they determined the condition of the trees they marked for cutting. Did they take a measure from their eye, did they look at the beans, did they dream like that? As we all understood, the phytopathologists from the Faculty of Forestry were not consulted either.

It is inadmissible to allow two-year-old trees to be cut down with two signatures and two sentences. Did they grow old and "get sick" just when the street was to be reconstructed? Or only then did someone notice their condition?

Skopje also has a Green Cadastre, in which for each tree in the city there should be data on the type, age, diseases, but also data on whether the tree was intervened, treated, pruned, ie whether everything was done before , as a last resort, to make a decision for its cutting. The cadastre exists but is not updated.

The authorities must stop the "loose" attitude towards the trees that are an invaluable treasure for Skopje. Many of them have not yet had their concrete roots released and so they are left to perish! They cut them during reconstructions, during the construction of buildings, because here, two will "determine" that they are old and do not fit.

Enough is enough! Take the greenery of the city a little more seriously. Because Skopje will not become a green city with empty words and promises, but with care for every tree. And care does not mean - the saw in the hands! That must be the final solution, having done everything else necessary to preserve it.