Tenerife now begins, after the stabilization of the fire, a race against time to try to prevent soil erosion with the arrival of the first autumn rains and to save the organic matter that accumulates on the surface, which will allow the seeds to germinate and regrow plants that are still alive after the passage of fire. This is indicated by Pascual Gil, who was responsible for 20 years of restoration work in Tenerife after the fires and one of the authors of the methodological guide designed in 2007 in the Canary Islands and which establishes the steps to follow after the passage of fire . Gil is currently the director-conservator of the Timanfaya National Park.
As he explains, because on the islands the rains are often torrential, it is necessary to act quickly to prevent the water from washing away organic matter on burnt slopes and areas without vegetation, instead of filtering and allowing roots to germinate. that are still alive “If you don’t work fast, the mulch runs down the slope and you’ll lose a lot of topsoil that has the nutrients you need for plants to grow,” he says.
To do this, as he points out, in the two months that remain before the rains, two types of actions must be carried out. The first, what is called fajinas, which consists of the installation of transversal branches in the soil and which, as micro-basins, allow water to be retained and the seed bank that has resisted fire to germinate. “If that soil leaves, the degradation of the ecosystem will be great,” he points out. In addition, almost in parallel it is necessary to undertake “recepé works” in those tree areas where there are specimens with the capacity to regrow. As Gil explains, the luck of the Canary Islands vegetation, of the Macaronesian type, is that it is adapted to fire and has the capacity to regrow after fires and even eruptions. “Depending on the species and the degree to which the fire affects, many crowns will regrow, but others need to be cut from the vine for them to regrow”, he indicates. The “recepé cuts” allow the regrowth of species such as holly, heather and faya, among others.
After these first works, which will be undertaken immediately, will come a restoration and recovery of biodiversity that will last for at least ten years. As Gil recalls, in the 2007 fire in the north of Tenerife, which affected 15,000 hectares in ten municipalities between Los Realejos and Guía de Isora, the work lasted six years at a cost of more than 18 million euros. On this occasion, taking into account the high perimeter of 90 kilometers, it will take at least a decade to recover what was lost. As for the investment, the declaration of a catastrophic area will help cover an investment that will be much higher.
“Now we have to design, plan, project and execute the restoration plan, and that takes time because each piece of forest is different and the condition also varies from one area to another,” says Gil, who points out that work will now begin to Design a map with the types of ecosystems that exist by area, the condition that the fire has had and the risk of erosion due to the slope. “With that photograph, you can begin to define and prioritize actions,” says this restoration expert, who recognizes the hard work of the forestry teams. “With dark circles still from the fire and soot in their eyes, they are already working on the restoration,” he points out.
This fire has burned more than 2,000 hectares of areas that were restored in the last 30 years, after the previous fire in this area in 1995. Gil, who was in charge of this work, indicates that laurel repopulations have been burned, which, after three decades, they were already more than 15 meters high and 20 in diameter. “You have to work to recover it again,” says this expert, who stresses that, despite the ability to regrowth, the fire has caused a great loss of biodiversity that will take “a very long time” to recover.
