The forester-environmentalist Savvas Kartanas, forest officer at the Department of Forestry, talks about the restoration of forests after a fire
The summer season is often marred by forest fires, also creating questions regarding the future of forests and the effects on the environment and on humans from their replacement by burned lands. But the Mediterranean forests “burn and regenerate”, the fire arrivesnot to be so intense, as the forester-environmentalist Savvas Kartanas, forest officer at the Department of Forests, said to KYPE, when asked about the restoration of forests after a fire. Otherwise, human intervention is needed to restore the forest, he noted, describing the natural process of restoring a forest after a fire.
Mr. Kartanas said that usually, after a fire, some seed trees are left behind, which will give seed to the next generations of trees, so that the natural regeneration can proceed by itself. “If the disaster is so great, we will either have to help with seeds or by planting trees,” he said. the first generation.
Asked about this, he said that there is usually no need for any treatment on the burnt land before tree planting or seeding, but it depends on the slopes of the land. As he noted, if the slope of the land is large, “we can help with mechanical means to make some terraces or grooves to hold the water”.
In cases where the fire damage is not great, the natural process of forest regeneration begins with some scout species, shrubs, thorns, etc., which do not have great requirements and are the first species to establish to cover the ground and prepare it to welcome the next generation, which will be taller bushes, then some low trees and slowly the forest will form again.
“Mediterranean forests have this characteristic. They burn and renew themselves, as long as the fire is not so intense, the destruction that will be caused is not so great, because that is where man will have to intervene”, he said, adding that in the Mediterranean forests it has always been considered that “the fire is for someone way their friend”, its intensity is sufficient not to destroy the seeds that are in the subsoil and to leave behind short trees-spores that will give the natural regeneration.
Mr. Kartanas noted that in order to re-form a forest takes around 20-25 years. “They will not be big trees, but small, around 8-10 meters. However, due to climate change, we have seen in recent years that it is not easy to have the same forest that you had before. The trees will be lower, more ugly. It will come back, but not to the same extent,” he said.
Regarding the conditions for tree planting, he said that it is not so simple, as in cases where the fire burns large areas, the financial cost is high. He said that a plan can be prepared to do it gradually. In any case, he said, there must be a plan.
He also noted that planting the same species is not necessarily the most correct. “We see, especially in the Mediterranean forests now, that the climate is changing, the temperatures are changing and pines are not suitable, because they burn very easily and the fires they cause are intense, they do not stop easily.” He noted that the Forestry Department in Cyprus rarely plants pine trees. “After fires, he prefers to put carobs, olives, cypresses, which do not burn easily. He might put in some bushes to help the fauna. He avoids pine trees because he knows they are full of resin, which burns very easily,” he added.
As for the fauna, he said that unfortunately the animals are definitely damaged. “Either they die, or they move to neighboring areas.” However, he pointed out that “proved by the fires we have seen in Cyprus in recent years, about 6-8 years later, the fauna usually increases, to a greater number than before the fire”. As he explained, the rapid increase is due to scout species, shrubs, etc., being food for the animals. So where it was a pure pine forest and there was a small meadow somewhere, now the whole area becomes a meadow and food for the animals, he said.
