Spain has been facing a wave of historical forest fires for weeks that has raised more than 415,000 The hectares razed since the beginning of the year, but ahead has an even more complicated challenge: decide what to do as soon as the fire is extinguished. Restock? Let nature follow its course? And if you choose to restore forests, how to do it, with what species and what to take into account?
These are new questions that can be summarized in A dilemma Simple: Do we want the ecosystems before the fires or others adapted to the future?
A figure: 415,000 hectares. It is not being a good year for the mountains of Spain. Especially for those of the northwest. The tables of Effisthe European Fire Information System shows that so far from 2025 they have burned in Spain more than 415,000 hawhich exceeds the calcined surface in other countries, such as France, Portugal or Italy. The flames have devoured homes, farms and places like the medulla. They have also left a question: And now, what?
“Look for something different”. The previous question may seem simple (recovering the mountain, right?), But it opens the door in turn to many other issues. What is the best way to act in the devastated forests? Is it the same mountain in which we have today that the one that had been half a century ago or the one in another 50 years? Should it be? “It costs us a bit to accept that there are species that are no longer adapted and they will not return, such as chestnuts,” Reflect in The world Ruth Domènech, fire expert at the University of California.
“The species are adapted to climatic features that, if they do not have, cannot resist. And that is a change that comes with climate change and we must acepar,” abounds. In a very similar line, Víctor Resco, Professor of Forestry Engineering by the University of Lleida (UDL), insists that there is an even more important issue than when forests will recover the state they had before the fires. “The question of the times is a bit trap because we don’t have to think about recovering what we had, we have to look for something different.”
Much more than fire. Forest fires affect the mountains, but they are not the only element that enters the equation. Talking about reforestation also implies making changes in meteorology or even native or alóctonian species, a topic that is frequently spoken. “But what native? What was there when the Romans were? What do we see on television, that idyllic image of Central European forest?” Doménech points out in The world.
“We demonize certain species, such as eucalyptus or Carrasco pine reason The expert, in favor of “leaving the species that are already adapted, which are the ones that will grow.” It is not the only one who insists on the relevance of these issues. In 2021 resco warned already that pines and eucalyptus were being used as “scapegoats.”
THE GREAT KEY: THE CLIMATE. In An article Posted three years ago The conversation in which he warned about the dangers of “deforestation and scrub”, especially given the growing threat of Megaincendiosthe UDL teacher stressed that before reforesting the former is to consider what he wants to get. “We must clarify what type of forest we want to restore: the ecosystem from before the fire or one adapted to the climate of the future? And, to choose the latter, to what future? To the year 2050, 2100 or another even further?”
“The forest restoration has always looked back, sought to establish the most mature forest type possible, based on the soil available and past climate. The word itself restores to recover or put back in the state that it had before,” Comment. “But in a changing climate scenario, the melancholic reincarnation of a past that will not make it meaningless. Nor does it have it to create the ecosystems that have brought us to the current situation. What can we do?
And what is the answer? That is the million dollar question. Resco Recognize that there are certain cases, such as the areas punished by erosion or lands of land, in which repopulation after fires is “an urgent need”; But he warns: “When there is no urgency, it is convenient to give a chance to natural regeneration and wait a few years.” About species, its posture is clear.
“It has been discussed for the repopulations must be with native or foreign species. Under a climate change scenario this debate is meaningless. If we plant the species adapted to the climate of the past, we run the risk that they die in a few decades. Therefore, we must select the plants adapted to the climate to come, which can be species that currently do not grow in that site, but in others hot Add the expertwhich slips options such as opting for species from warmer areas or the so -called “assisted migration.”
And natural regeneration? Even in those cases, the professor warns, the recovery of the forest will face the “future climate dilemma.” As an example, remember what happened after tragic fire that Guadalajara shook in 2005, a “fire hurricane” that devastated 13,000 hectares and left 11 dead.
The oaks recovered before the Pinos thanks to their ability to rebound and in fact the latter were in a delicate position against new fires. The problem is that future projections show that in just a few decades the heat and drought in the region will lead to the oaks “beyond the limit”, so that the fire will end the pines and the global warming will do so with the oaks.
Environmental diversity. There is another factor that comes into play: not all species are equally adapted to the flames. In fact, like remember The Pau Costa Foundation, in the Mediterranean forests there are many organisms so accustomed to the fire that have ended up adapting to it. “Some species even need it to survive,” recalls the organism before listing several species that take advantage of fires to reproduce or feed.
A clear example is the MELANOPHILA ACUMINATAbetter known as “Fire Beetle”, endowed with receptors that allow it to detect flames kilometers away and that goes to calcined forests to deposit eggs in predators free areas precisely because of the effects of the flames. The red partridge, the European rabbit or the pellet eagle have discovered that the fires also generate ideal conditions to feed on outbreaks or other creatures.
Fauna … and flora. This kind of strategies is not exclusive to insects, small mammals and birds. There are also plants that have adapted their survival to the flames or have learned to take advantage of them. Good example is the Carrasco pine, whose seeds accumulate in pineapples that open with heat. In your case the fires are translated, Precise The Foundation, in “A Rain of Seed”. Other species, such as cork oak, Aliaga or Coscoja have opted for different strategies. The last for example (Quercus coccifera) It is what is known as rebroader.
That does not mean that these species resist any forest fire. Its adaptation conforms to the “fire regime” of its ecosystem, its specific fire pattern, associated with a certain time of the year, frequency, intensity and characteristics. If you want to persevere those plants and animals, they need certain conditions, which means that the increasingly voracious fires are a challenge for them.
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