Green shoots in Sierra Gador

FOUR months after fire on Sierra Gador devasted 600 hectares of countryside, pine seedlings are pushing through the earth.

Recovering the original holm oaks is the main object of the team of Almeria University experts monitoring the regeneration.

“Pines are precisely what we are less interested in because they self-seed without help, as we are now seeing,” Esther Gimenez, director of the Almeria University’s Scientific Collection Centre, told the provincial media.

“A dense pine forest without undergrowth would be fuel for potential fires.  Action is needed,” Gimenez declared.

The Almeria University experts have marked out 24 plots of land, each 100 metres square in zones that escaped the flames as well as those that were burnt.

These will provide information regarding the evolution of pines, holm oaks and vegetation, as well as details of the arthropods, principally spiders and insects, that inhabit the Sierra.  A third line of investigation will concentrate on the soil while another will analyse the reptiles found in each parcel.

“We want to find out the speed and extent of the recovery of the burnt areas, focusing on vegetation and wildlife,” Gimenez said.

“Then we shall know exactly what type of species should be used for the recovery of the Sierra.”

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