The black pine forests of the Pyrenees on calcareous soils are a habitat of priority interest in Europe. A project with European funds, Life Uncinata, wants to conserve, restore and make these biodiversity spaces more resilient through a team of Catalan and Navarra researchers who will analyze different areas and apply actions to establish new management models.
Ripollès is one of the study points of the project and this month the researchers have already started field work with data collection.
The project is led by the Forest Science and Technology Center of Catalonia (CTFC) and with partners such as CREAF and the Center for Forest Property and Environmental Management of Navarra, among others. With a budget of 3.7 million euros, it will last until 2027.
“The black pine – ‘Pinus uncinata’ – is in the last line of trees before the alpine meadows” and, therefore, lives with very changing and often extreme conditions, such as frost and snow, something that makes them more “vulnerable.” ”. It is explained by Xènia Jaumejoan, a CTFC researcher during a visit to one of the Ripollès farms, in Campelles.
The combination with limestone soil is rarer and that is why it is a priority conservation habitat for the EU.
They are unique habitats because the calcareous substrate influences the vegetation that grows and is only found in the Pyrenees and the Alps. This makes them spaces to be preserved for the biodiversity of the ecosystems, but also for concentrating productive uses of wood exploitation.
Among the objectives of this project are determining actions to improve biodiversity and making human activities compatible with preservation. Formulas will also be studied to mitigate the impacts of possible fires or that of herbivorous animals in the undergrowth, such as deer, among others.
First, an initial diagnosis of the state of the pine forests will be made and then the team of researchers will create habitat conservation plans for each of the Special Conservation Areas (SAC) – there are a total of 6 – in which they will work.
According to Jaumejoan, “it is about being able to see the state of conservation of the pine forests and making improvements to adapt them to possible factors such as climate change and others.” Among the problems detected, the low presence of undergrowth vegetation stands out, for example. “We will study how to enhance it, either by making clearings – selectively extracting trees – and with plantations” such as blueberries or pastries that will also improve the preservation of protected species such as capercaillie. Human visitation will also be regulated at some points and pastures with livestock will be redirected.
To carry out a diagnosis of its biodiversity, traps have been installed at different points to detect the presence of insects such as beetles that live and feed on dead wood.
“We set the traps three weeks ago and we have come to see what has fallen,” explains Elena Pi, another of the participating CTFC researchers.
During the inspection, they also take the opportunity to carry out other sampling, such as taking fallen trees as dead wood, inventorying the biodiversity potential of the space and installing recorders to examine the existing bat community.
These inspections will last until August. According to Pi, “now we are doing a diagnosis, then the actions will come and then we will return to it to repeat the process in the same months and be able to compare the effects.”
To carry out a diagnosis of its biodiversity, traps have been installed at different points to detect the presence of insects such as beetles that live and feed on dead wood.
During the inspection of the traps that the researchers make, they also take the opportunity to carry out other sampling such as fallen trees as dead wood, inventory the biodiversity potential of the space and install recorders to examine the bat community there. These inspections will last until August.
According to one of the researchers, Elena Pi, “now we are doing a diagnosis, then the actions will come and then we will return to it to repeat the process in the same months and be able to compare the effects.”
Apart from the performances in Campelles, included in the Capçaleres del Ter and Frese park, other protected spaces will also be studied such as the Aigüestortes National Park and the Alt Pirineu and Cadí-Moixeró natural parks, the national reserve of caza de Boumort, the forest reserve of Larra-Aztaparreta in Navarre, and in three large private estates, such as Alinyà Mountain, Pedró-Rasos and L’Estany. In total, about 150 hectares of free evolution and another 150 hectares of productive forests with improved biodiversity.
Coordination is carried out by the Center for Forest Science and Technology of Catalonia (CTFC) and has partners such as CREAF, the Forest Property Centre, the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera, Integra Pirineos and Gestión Ambiental de Navarra SA 75% of the budget It is endowed with European funds and will last until December 2027. With this project, we want to reach a model of actions that can be replicated in the rest of the European ‘Pinus uncinata’ forests that suffer or will suffer the same conservation problems.
