Should Greece regrow forests lost in wildfires?
Source: NEOS KOSMOS
The loss of Greek forests due to worsening wildfires has sparked a debate on whether the government should plant more trees – that could provide fuel for future fires – or attempt to restore the land in a different way.
Experts say dwindling forests raises the risk of flash floods from rains on bared grounds no longer protected by trees, as well as higher air temperatures caused by the heating of unshaded ground, desertification and poorer air quality.
In Attica, blazes have destroyed 37 per cent of its forests and grasslands since 2017, according to data released in August by the National Observatory of Athens.
More than 60 per cent of broad-leafed forest and 41 per cent of coniferous forest has been burned and has not fully regrown.
A local from the village of Penteli, Marlena Kaloudi, has lived there since the 1970s, she saw a fire sweep through her house but she is more concerned about seeing the 100+ year old pine trees gone.
“The biggest disaster…is not our house – this can be restored,” Kaloudi told Reuters.
“It’s those trees that were here before us and we hoped and prayed would be here after us.”
When neighbours asked her to cut down the remaining trees in her garden following the last fire, she refused.
“The loss of this forest terrifies me,” she said.
“What scares me is the fact that there are people who want to cut the trees that are left.”
With constant wildfires in Greece forests have been re-sprouting only to be reburned.
Of all fire-related forest loss in Attica since 2000, 74 per cent has occurred since 2017.
Greece does want its forests back.
The EU has given 450 million euros to set up a national fire prevention plan that also includes planting one million trees in Attica.
“The increase of greenery and its preservation is not only a goal of the government but of the entire European Union,” said Efstathios Stathopoulos, Greece’s General Secretary of Forestry.
But not everyone thinks replanting trees is the answer.
Theodore Giannaros, a fire meteorologist at the National Observatory of Athens said the ground in some areas will be even hotter because of the lack of shade.
The loss of tree root systems means looser soil and an increased risk of floods or landslides.
His answer is planting less flammable vegetation like some kinds of grasses or agricultural land.
“We have to seriously focus on how to restore the landscape, not just planting trees and forests, but in a way that will be…more resilient against natural disasters.”
The original article: belongs to NEOS KOSMOS .
