Some farmer from Penedès affirms in private that it is more costly for roe deer to eat the shoots of his vines and thus collect the corresponding compensation than to sell the grapes at ridiculous prices, barely 20 cents per kilo. This and other cases that exemplify the precariousness of the countryside hide an impact beyond the income statement of the farmer in question. Sooner rather than later, if the numbers do not come out, these vineyards could be abandoned, encouraging the process of expansion of the forest area. This case serves to explain that many factors influence the spread of a fire: drought, rising temperatures and wind, but also the abandonment of the rural world, which in recent decades has led to the growth of the forest and the accumulation the fuel that feeds the flames.
The Firefighters of the Generalitat, and specifically the Forest Action Support Group (GRAF), led by Marc Castellnou, never get tired of repeating that they promote a mosaic landscape, which integrates various types of vegetation, with pastures, different species of trees, vines and orchards, is an antidote against the fire that the administration and society should promote more decisively, in the current context of alarming climate change.
Every morning the heads of the different operational groups of the Fire Department meet in Bellaterra to analyze the conditions that can lead to fires in each of the seven emergency regions established in Catalonia. If at the beginning of May the panorama was critical and of unknown dimensions, with areas such as Terres de l'Ebre at level 4, on a scale of 1 to 6 of fire risk, the rains of recent weeks have given a truce. Yesterday, according to the Bombers prediction map, the danger was low or moderate in the whole of Catalonia. But Josep Pallàs, head guard of the central hall of Bellaterra, remarked on Friday that it is not necessary to trust oneself, "we are at a moment of impasse, but the summer is expected to be difficult, there are bushes and trees touched to death by the structural drought, there is a lot of biomass. We must be aware of where we live and that people keep their plots clean”. Pallàs notes that in April, when the horizon was very black, there were fires typical of summer.
This is the first forest campaign of the Bombers that lasts for four months, its start has been brought forward fifteen days, to June 1, and it will last another fifteen days at the end, until September 30. "The campaign has been seasonally adjusted due to this historic drought," says inspector Oriol Corbella. Until the last rains appeared, every day the firefighters witnessed historical minimum rainfall and maximum temperatures, Corbella points out. “The vegetation is not used to this climate, it gets stressed, dries up, pests appear that weaken it even more. In addition to forest management, the most important thing is to promote activity in the rural world, to encourage farmers to maintain a mosaic landscape”, he adds.
Climate change outlines an uncertain future, in unknown terrain for firefighters, as indicated by Corbella. “One of the things we learn is to manage uncertainty, until May we had never had such a drought. The latest rains give us about 15 days of calm, but if the wind blows... In any case, this will not be a better season, it will be normal”, Corbella considers.
The horizon that global warming has drawn in the world has fueled fires that have devastated tens of thousands of hectares, even hundreds of thousands in the worst cases, and that exceed the extinction capacity. This situation has led to a change in work philosophy. "In what we have advanced the most in recent years has been in the strategy, the GRAF analysts tell us how the fire will evolve and based on this information we make decisions," adds Corbella.
This is how we acted in June 2022 in the face of the simultaneous fires in La Noguera, Solsonès, Alt Urgell and Terra Alta. “We analyzed how each one was doing to determine which ones could cause more serious problems instead of proceeding with a direct attack to try to shut them down. It is a matter of seeing the growth potential of each focus to go preventively before it breaks out, also to act where the flames are lower and can be extinguished, not where they are more virulent; In short, we move to the places where we will have the maximum benefit with the least effort, in this way we optimize resources”, explains Etel Arilla, GRAF deputy inspector.
Arilla affirms that Catalonia is exposed to large fires if the conditions for it exist on specific days. That is why every morning an exhaustive analysis is carried out to be prepared for the worst.
“What we have undone in 40 years we will not fix in two, there must be more forest management and defense of the primary sector, paying more to the farmer so that he does not abandon the field. When the flames find a landscape with different structures, forest, pasture, orchard, olive trees..., they lose strength, they have less fuel," insists Arilla. Currently, 66% of the surface of Catalonia is forested. The very dense forest has gained ground from crops, creating masses of vegetation that can act as fire roads.
"The forest grows every year at the rate of three million cubic meters, but only 30% of this wood or firewood is used," laments Joan Roura, secretary of the Consorci de Gestió Forestal de Catalunya. “Regarding forest area, we have reached a maximum figure, we do not have historical records that give us equivalent data. It is necessary to cut down trees to eliminate competition and make them more vigorous and resistant to drought and fire”, adds Roura, who advocates for more subsidies that make forestry activities profitable and for less bureaucracy.
From Acció Climàtica, the director of Forest Ecosystems, Anna Sanitjas, indicates that "only in grants for forest management has gone from eight million in 2020 to 17 in 2022", although she stresses that what it is about is "reactivating the sector, that people earn a living" and does not depend on public aid. The challenge, she adds, is that 60% of the forests are managed, compared to the current 30%.
Drought and pests affect the health of the trees, some die and others subsist at half speed. Sanitjas indicates that 30% suffer from defoliation.
"In 2022 we propose a plan of 18 million euros to facilitate the action of the firefighters in case of fire consisting of fixing roads, cleaning the undergrowth in strategic areas, installing and maintaining water points, protecting the fringes of urbanizations... ., but they are performances in the ICU. To take a step forward we must remove trees, make the ones that remain stronger and return to the mosaic landscape”, stresses Sanitjas. A difficult challenge because, as indicated by Raquel Serrat, from Unió de Pagesos, farms continue to be abandoned and the generational change is almost a chimera, since only 9% of the peasants are under 40 years of age.
