The Science and Technology Park of Bizkaia has more than 5000 trees from almost 100 different species

6 July 2012

The Park has re-published a book about the trees, which lists all the species with details about their characteristics and origin.
The book is divided into five walks, giving a total of six kilometres of routes, and provides an excellent guide for getting to know the trees in the Park.
One of the walks, around the BTEK Technology Interpretation Centre, is used in the Biotechnology Workshops carried out in conjunction with school groups.

The Science and Technology Park of Bizkaia has more than 5,000 trees in an area of 213 hectares, in the districts of Zamudio and Derio, offering a space of high environmental value. The Park has catalogued the arboretum which is formed from 91 different species and which have already been described in a 221-page book in which each species has a description sheet containing information about its origin, type of leaf and fruit.

The majority of the trees are from Europe, although there are also a large variety of species from America, Africa and Asia, and a few from Oceania. Some of the most exotic species include the Araucaria Araucana – Monkey Puzzle Tree, from Chile, not often found in these latitudes, and the Acacia Melanoxylon – Australian Blackwood, a native of Australia. As well as the exotic species, there are oaks, ash, lime, magnolias, pines, firs and maples making up the park arboretum. At present there are seven different varieties of maple tree, as the park completes its collection of maple varieties.

The book about the trees is divided into five walks, with a total of six kilometres of routes:

Walk 1: This runs around the Park’s central building, building 101, and has 23 different species.
Walk 2: This is the Park’s bidegorri (cycle path) and 28 different species have been identified along this route. It is the walk with the greatest variety of species.
Walk 3: This route goes around the buildings from numbers 201 to 206, and ends at building 407. There are 20 different species.
Walk 4: This walk runs around the BTEK, Technology Interpretation Centre, and has 18 species, including some of the youngest trees in the park. This walk is used in the Biotechnology Workshops run by BTEK for school groups visiting the centre, specifically in the Unit for the identification of species of trees in the Park. The objective is to genetically identify the native species of the Basque Country from DNA sequences and pollen.
Walk 5: This is the longest walk, starting at building 810 and going around buildings number 600 to 700, with 18 different species identified.

The Bizkaia Technology Park, which belongs to the SPRI Group (the group of public companies attached to the Department of Industry, Innovation, Commerce and Tourism and which offer support to the Basque business network), published the first Book of Trees in 2002, listing 78 species of tree, distributed along three walks. Ten years later, the list of species has been updated, to include the new species planted in recent years and defining new walks. The book is a guide to the Park Arboretum, printed on environmentally-friendly paper, and has received the support of the FECYT, the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology.