Israeli forest’s road to recovery
The fire broke out Thursday and burned a 20-square-mile
(50-square-kilometer) area in the Carmel forest, a popular nature spot
on Haifa’s outskirts. The blaze was brought under control late Sunday
and damages overall have been estimated in the hundreds of millions of
dollars. Although the wildfire was small by international standards, it
was considered a calamity in Israel, where only 7 percent of the land is
wooded. Read more “ JERUSALEM” For more than a century, planting trees
in this mostly desert land has been an act of almost spiritual
importance, starting with those who helped create and the state of
Israel.
So, the emotional response to the worst wildfire in the country’s
history, which tore through one of its few natural forests over the
weekend and killed 42 people, has been to seek to replant — and
donations are pouring in from around the world.
But forestry experts caution that the best road to recovery for the
Carmel forest may be to do nothing and let nature take its course — an
idea that is running into resistance.
The four-day forest fire that reached the outskirts of Haifa,
Israel’s third-largest city, is seen as a calamity in Israel, where only
7 percent of the land is wooded. The Carmel forest makes up 5 percent of
that wooded land.
The inferno burned down 5 million trees and about a third of the
nature reserve, where 100-foot (30-meter) oak, pine and cypress trees
once stood. Blackened, barren hilltops are all that remain, and charred
tree stumps stick out of the ground like gravestones.
Russell Robinson, the head of the Jewish National Fund, a world
Jewish group devoted to planting and maintaining forests in Israel, has
vowed to replant the trees. His organization quickly raised upward of $1
million out of the $10 million it hopes to generate in the coming year
to fund a range of restoration and fire prevention measures.
“I see the spirit of the people who are going to be a part of
rebuilding it tomorrow,” Robinson said. “This land will turn back from
black to green.” For generations, the JNF has preached the planting of
trees as an ultimate act of Zionism. Known for its blue-and-white
collection boxes and fundraising campaigns, the JNF has planted 240
million trees across Israel.
Researcher Dan Melkinson of Haifa University warned, however, that
the extent of the fire” which caused almost twice the combined damage of
all previous Carmel fires over the past 30 years” required a patient
approach to study which areas could recover naturally and which needed
replanting.
“We propose to let the ecosystem regenerate itself in the coming year
without any intervention. Any reforestation entails moving into the area
with heavy machinery, and that destroys the flora,” he said. “The
approach is not to go out and bring back the green, but to observe the
ground and consider where to plant anew and where not.” The debate boils
down to the very essence of trees in the Holy Land. The typical Israeli
forested landscape is made up of planted, planned lines of pine trees.
And for generations, the JNF forests have been an integral part of
Israel’s nation building.
Natural forests like the Carmel, on the other hand, with wildlife and
diverse ecosystems, are rare.
Those who care for the two distinct types of forest have different
goals, explained Omri Gal, a spokesman for the Israel Nature and Parks
Authority, which administers the Carmel area.
“The JNF forests are for the enjoyment and recreation of people. Our
goal is to preserve nature,” Gal said. “The public wants to help after
something like this. They feel that by planting a tree where another was
burned they are helping, but this is not always true.” Researchers note
that forest fires are not necessarily all bad. Low temperature blazes
can actually enhance the soil with nutrients from within the old trees
and create natural recycling for greater biodiversity. Particularly with
pine trees, where seeds are trapped in cones and explode when exposed to
heat, the potential for renewal is great.
Unfortunately, Gal said, the country was not blessed with these “good
fires” that normally result from bolts of lightning during summer
storms. Arson, negligence and other human factors account for almost all
of Israel’s fires.
Israel’s minister of environmental protection will oversee the
recovery efforts, heading a task force made up of experts from the
government, agencies and nature groups. The ministry’s spokesman,
Yekutiel Zafari, said all were in agreement that for the first year,
“nature must take its course.” But Omri Bonneh, director of the JNF’s
northern region, said that approach takes many years. He pointed to the
slow recovery of planted forests in northern Israel that were damaged by
Hezbollah rocket fire from Lebanon during a monthlong war in 2006.
The first stage of rehabilitation of those forests” using a mixture
of the two approaches” has only now been completed and a full recovery
will take decades, he said.
He said a hands-off approach could be effective but only to a degree.
“This is the mother of all fires,” he said. “When it comes to planted
forests, we will have to get involved in planting again.”
- AP
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