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In recent weeks, even on the pages of local newspapers, a comparison has been made between the cedars of Piazza Europa and the pines of Corso Dante, Pinus wallichiana or the Himalayas, felled in 1989, with an overall positive result. I would like to clarify for those who don’t know that these are two completely different and not comparable situations. Pinus wallichiana grows on deep, slightly calcareous soil and prefers a temperate climate. Furthermore, it grows well if isolated and not in a group.
Corso Dante was built in 1926 with two rows of horse chestnut trees along the road and in the center a raised convex plan (bombè) layout with hedges and trees (parks and gardens commission report) so that vehicles and cycles do not have to enter it “. Until the beginning of the war the appearance was that of a series of flowerbeds with narrow, purely decorative paths, which formed characteristic designs.
During the Second World War Corso Dante, like many other parks in the city, was completely gutted in the central section to create “war gardens” and plant wheat, potatoes and other food products. After the war, awaiting redevelopment, the central part of Corso Dante was left as grass. But in 1948 the Burgo di Verzuolo paper mills tried to launch the cultivation of American white pine (Pinus strobus) and Himalayan white pine (Pinus wallichiana) in Italy. Thus it was that Burgo paid homage to the Municipality of Cuneo, for advertising purposes, of a certain number of specimens of Pinus wallichiana, which were destined, in part, to Corso Dante and, in part, to various municipal buildings, including some schools of the fractions. This contemporary arrangement of the Pinus wallichiana in different areas of the city has allowed the surveyor Franco Actis Alesina, former manager of the public green sector of the Municipality of Cuneo, to draw some considerations regarding the stability of the pines of Corso Dante. He told me, in 1997, that at the beginning of the 1980s, when the first signs of “weakness” of the pines began to appear, with consequent risks for public safety, the trees on Corso Dante had reached a height of 20/ 22 meters with an average diameter at the foot of 60 cm, while the companions, planted elsewhere, in the countryside, or in any case, in more open areas, did not exceed 18 meters in height with a diameter at the foot of 80 cm.
This significant difference in development was attributed, according to Actis, to the fact that in Corso Dante the Himalayan pines were too close and “forced” between two rows of horse chestnut trees, dating back to before the war, which by removing the light from them, had made them grow excessively in height, weakening them. The felling was therefore necessary for the health of the pines and the horse chestnut trees which were no longer suffocated by too many pines benefited above all.
The choice to plant Himalayan pines in Corso Dante was not, in hindsight, the happiest; however, they made quite a profit for the Municipality, which every year sold (or exchanged for plants to be planted elsewhere) the strobili (cones) produced with an income that was anything but negligible.
Domenico Sanino
Pro Natura Cuneo
