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Fire close to firs, the botanical treasure of Sierra Bermeja

2021-09-14T03:49:06.777Z


The mountainous region of Andalusia is the only place in the world where this type of fir grows, a relic of the past in danger of extinction that if it burns it is forever because it is not able to regrow naturally


A specimen of Spanish fir, a singular fir that grows in the mountains of Málaga and Cádiz.JARO MUÑOZ

The fire in Malaga, which has already burned 7,400 hectares, had not reached the most closed Spanish fir forest in the natural area of ​​the Reales de Sierra Bermeja (Malaga) on Monday, but it was close. A tongue of fire has entered the protected area and affected 148 hectares (10% of the enclave), which has caused the loss of some specimens that grow mixed with pine trees around the main nucleus of the Spanish fir. Conserving the species is vital, because this type of conifer, a relic of the past at the end of the Tertiary era, only grows in the world in three enclaves scattered throughout the Andalusian mountains, in Cádiz and Málaga. It has some relatives in other areas of the Mediterranean, but they are different species. Added to this scarcity is the Spanish

fir

(

Abies alba

) does not survive the fire, if it burns it is forever, because, although it has gone through times of salinity or glaciations, it does not have the strategies of other species that manage to re-sprout on their own and that are burning in the fire, such as pines, cork oaks or holm oaks.

Carmen Crespo, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development of the Junta de Andalucía, assured yesterday morning that "the mass of Spanish fir is not affected."

Satellite images show a small tongue of fire entering the eastern margin of the protected area.

The works have been concentrating since Saturday on cooling and moistening the area to prevent the trees from turning into fuel as the fire advanced towards the municipality of Casares.

More information

  • Sixth generation fires: fires with the ability to modify the weather

  • The Sierra Bermeja fire continues unstoppable

Despite this news, concern is spreading throughout the scientific community. Andrés Pérez Latorre, Professor of Botany at the University of Malaga, assures that they do not have the necessary information to know the seriousness of what is happening. "We are tremendously concerned, in the Reales de Sierra Bermeja there are 53 hectares of more lush fir forest, not mixed with pines, and about 100 in which both species coexist", he maintains. In addition, the Sierra Bermeja Spanish fir is unique, because it grows on peridotites, a type of toxic rock, with heavy metals, that outcrops in about 15 or 20 places on the planet. "Only some species manage to live in it, including the Spanish fir and pine trees, but they are much less than if it were another type of rock," he explains.

In his opinion, none of this would have happened if the site had been more protected. "They should have included it within the Sierra de las Nieves National Park [created in July], because that figure forces us to draw up fire protection plans and it would have been more closely guarded," says Pérez Latorre. A certainty shared by the NGO dedicated to ornithology SEO / BirdLife and which reports that the fire has directly affected Bonelli's eagle, golden eagle and peregrine falcon territories.

Felipe Román, biologist and member of Ecologistas en Acción, affirms forcefully: "Sierra Bermeja is completely abandoned to its fate for a lifetime, the protection of the Junta de Andalucía is on paper, because there have never been resources". They have been denouncing for almost 40 years that there is a great danger of fire and demanding infrastructures "that have never arrived." “We are talking about a saw with slopes of discharge, which is covered with pine trees in a natural way. That tells you that it is an area that can burn due to its geographical conditions ”, he describes. There is a lack of a forest defense center, he adds, which implies the existence of personnel, checkpoints, fire trucks, technical personnel to design prevention campaigns or an own anti-fire plan.

Román is a member of the Sierra Bermeja National Park Platform, which asks that this place be included within the Sierra de las Nieves National Park. Something that has not happened. "This way, greater financing could be obtained and in the short term it would have implied restrictions to enter the most sensitive areas of Sierra Bermeja," he specified. In the area, he lists, there are 50 species of mammals, otters, mongoose, ibex or roe deer, 10 reptiles, five amphibians, among others, and many endemic.

Baltasar Cabezudo, botanist and president of the governing board of the Sierra de las Nieves for 10 years, focuses on all the species that are burning. "As a botanist it hurts so much that a fir like a cork oak, mosses, fungi ...". But, he adds, the scrubland and other Mediterranean species have been adapting to fire all their lives, something that the Spanish fir has not achieved. "They have their strategy and they will recover, but in the long term, tell a neighbor that that pine forest that was next to his house and has burned will recover in 50 years, let's see what he thinks, because it is a long time", assures.

The Spanish fir of the Sierra de las Nieves National Park (located northeast of the fire area and adjacent to Sierra Bermeja), the most extensive of all the enclaves of the species, is not currently in danger from the fire.

It is difficult to know how many hectares of Spanish fir there are because there are areas where they are widely scattered.

Andrés Pérez Latorre's research indicates that there are about 1,000 hectares of dense Spanish fir forests: between 600 and 700 in the Sierra de las Nieves National Park, about 300 or 400 in the Sierra de Grazalema, 53 in Sierra Bermeja and five in Ojén.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-09-14

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