THE FORESTRY Department is treating the reforestation and rejuvenation of burned forest land from the summer fires as matters of high priority. The arrival of winter and the prospect of rainfall have highlighted the urgency of dealing with issues such as land erosion, flooding and the possibility of burned matter finding its way to water dams.
“Following intensive research which took a month to finish, the Forestry Department created a State Forest Restoration Plan in August. Since then, we have been busy implementing the plan and are now in the final stages. The programme is expected to ne completed by December,” Takis Tsindides, Senior Forest Keeper at the Forestry Department, said yesterday.
The fires of June 29 burned down a total of 1,196 hectares of forest in Saittas, Kalavasos and Sykopetra. Out of this, 577 hectares is state-owned land, 44 hectares is state-administered land and 575 hectares private forest. Half of the public land that was burned is designated under NATURA 2000 label, a Europe-wide network of protected biodiversity sites.
Despite the almost intuitive conviction that reforestation is the only way to rejuvenate a forest, this is not always the case, as Tsindides explained. “Some species can rejuvenate naturally, by themselves. This is the case with broad-leaved [angiosperm] trees such as golden oaks, alder orientalis, and plane trees. Conifers, however, cannot get reborn by themselves, as they only grow from seeds and require reforestation,” he said.
So, in the case of the 310 hectares of burned pine forest, the Forestry Department has decided to plant seeds. According to Tsindides, half of this area has already been planted with seeds, which are expected to start growing soon, provided it rains within the next fortnight. The 180 hectares of burned broad-leaved forest will be left as they are, since the field survey conducted by the Forestry Department showed that there are enough seeds there for nature to take its course unaided.
The planting of trees has been chosen as the best option for 30 hectares of burned land. Half of this area has already been covered, Tsindides confirmed. “Since October 6, we have started a tree-planting programme, whereby we organise a group of volunteers every weekend, who go and plant trees. The project is expected to get completed by December.”
In the case of the Amiantos asbestos mine area, a specialised procedure called hydroseeding has been chosen. “This is a highly successful but expensive and time-consuming procedure,” he explained.
To prevent land erosion, the Forestry Department has been placing tree trunks at slopes to sustain soil and placing gabions (wired boxes containing stones) at rivers and waterways to allow water to pass but prevent soil from moving.
“I am confident that the forest will find ways to rejuvenate itself as fire is part of nature’s cycle and sometimes even has positive consequences for an ecosystem. Natural rebirth may even be a better method in some cases. It will, of course, take decades before we see the tall forests we knew. The process of forest rebirth, however, has already begun and will be visible within a year,” said Tsindides.
