Volunteers take aim at stacked stones of Es Trucadors

foto ses salines pedres 1The Formentera Council's environment office reports that the administration is partnering with GEN-GOB and the Balearic ministry of environment to stage a cleanup this Saturday in a bid to clear piles of small rocks near Es Trucadors.

CiF environment secretary Daisee Aguilera encouraged the whole island to come out for the event. The day will begin with a 10.30am briefing in the car park of Es Ministre, a restaurant in Illetes. From there volunteers will head to Es Trucadors and, said the secretary, “try to make a dent in the piles of stones littering the landscape”. Aguilera said crews are encouraged to scatter the stones carefully to minimise impact on the surrounding ecosystem.

Es Trucadors sits in the centre of Ses Salines nature reserve, which exposure to wind and waves makes particularly susceptible to erosion. Those very weather conditions are behind the strange and unique coastal features that are one of the reserve's defining characteristics—and the same reason it is vulnerable to even subtle changes.

Aguilera held the park's surging popularity in recent years and visitors' inclination to stack stones in sculpture-like creations to blame for “accelerating natural processes of erosion and, by correlation, this area's eventual disappearance from the map”. That, she said, is the idea behind educational outreach: explaining to islanders “why leaving this fragile ecosystem untouched, and if possible restoring it to how it was, is so crucial”.

Volunteers coming to participate from Eivissa should meet in the port at 8.30am. Round-trip travel between the islands will be covered by Baleària, and bus service to and from Illetes will also be free of charge. Snacks will be provided at the end of the day.