In less than 70 years, the forest has gone from an isolated and practically forgotten vegetal space to a forestry network with a plan of vigilance, prevention and organization for their protection.
And it is that every day we have less space for green spaces and the environment and a gradual deterioration of soil qualitywith a serious problem of erosion and loss of arable land.
That’s why we wanted to dedicate this space to learning about what caring for and protecting forests entails, starting with cleaning forests with professional machines as a fundamental step to avoid environmental disasters such as out of control fires, something common every summer.
Contents
What is the forest maintenance plan
Any action in the green zone, from reforestation of a burnt area or in the process of regeneration until the maintenance of the trees, it is about forest management or maintenance.
Objective number 1 is to ensure the survival of all the species contained and to guarantee a plant richness that allows it to be self-sufficient in the future.
In fact, today a law has been approved in Spain that allocates part of the budget to infrastructure, transport, roads and other means to finance and cover the costs of maintenance, cleaning, conservation and expansion of the forest mass.
To offer data to the matter, the forest area of Spain covers more than 26 million hectares, which represents more than 50% of the extension of the country. This percentage is considerably higher than in most European countries.
As of today, only 5% of forest areas The Spaniards have plans for planning, managing or improving forests, and these are mainly those in the public domain as opposed to private.
Moreover, many of these plans are already expired due to passing their expiration date. For this reason, we can confirm that the majority of Spanish forests do not have an adequate and up-to-date planning system, therefore There is a lot to do.
Features of forest maintenance
- Monitoring and control of the soil erosion process.
- Training pruning of trees to control their growth and avoid a very compact mass of trees.
- Weed control, especially on paths, firebreaks and in reforestation areas.
- Planning and selection of varieties adapted to the altitude and climatology of the forest area.
- Phytosanitary control of trees (the most important carried out in Spain is that of the pine processionary)
How are the Spanish forests?
- Plantations adapted to very dry environments (xerophytes) with vegetation formed of bushes or shrubs, type Pinus halepensis, Juniper thurifera, Tetraclinis articulata, Quercus coccifera Yes Juniper phoenicea.
- Mediterranean sclerophyll forests: genera Quercus, Olea Yes Ceratonia and Acer.
- Hardwood forests of the genera fagus, Quercus, plum Yes basswood.
- Forests with dominant species of the genera pine, abies Yes Tax.
- Dry saline areas where sub-shrubs predominate.
- Areas near rivers with species of the genus betula, Alnus, Corylus, popular, Salix Yes tamarisk.
Fire prevention: the main means of extinguishing the forest mass
1. Use of firewalls
During the last years we suffered great fires that devour multitude of hectares in all the surface of the Spanish territory. Although serious problems such as desertification or widespread drought cover more hectares than fires, the latter are more striking because of the rapidity of destruction.
Any forest plan includes measures to protect plant masses, such as pruning, clearing brush and creating insulating firewalls.
In the latter case, the higher the quality of the forests (according to the species, its reforestation and the risk of fire), the smaller the areas.
That’s where it comes in all kinds of forest machines such as industrial brush cutters, power saws, excavators and all kinds of large-scale tools.
Silvicultural treatments aim to increase the quality of the plant mass in order to guarantee the development and sustainability of the trees.
This work consists of clearing, clearing, cleaning, pruning and generally reducing the risk of fire.
The 2 previous points are direct prevention actions, even if the one that has the greatest scope and impact against fires is the social consciousness.
Know firsthand and give the importance it deserves to our forests, prohibiting camping areas, barbecues and fires in times of high fire risk.
On the other hand, it is necessary to increase prison sentences for arsonists, who are the main cause of arson in Spain.