Portuguese SAGAS – We are rebuilding the forests

volunteersha 31^st of March 2018

This article was published few days ago. I urge you all to read it and if you want to know more go to the link : https://phys.org/news/2018-03-life-portugal-oldest-forest-ravaged.html#jCp

Around 3,000 volunteers on Sunday began an ambitious reforestation project in Portugal’s oldest forest, ravaged by last year’s devastating wild fires.

Some 67,500 pine trees were planted in the Leiria forest, in central Portugal, which was almost entirely burned to ashes during a series of fires in October.

“We lost 80 percent of the Leiria pine forest in the fires, a great task is waiting for us: the reforestation will require the planting of about 22 million trees,” said Cidalia Ferreira, the mayor of Marinha Grande where part of the 800-year-old wood is located.

Volunteers were supported by military, police and fire personnel in the government-led initiative.

“We will rebuild this pine forest, so that it becomes pretty and so that our children will have clear air to breathe in the future. That is what motivates me,” volunteer Jose Dyonisio told AFP.

The forest dates back to the 13th century and its pine was used by Portuguese explorers to build sailing ships between the 15th and 17th centuries.

The wave of fires which ripped through swathes of land in central Portugal killed 49 people in October last year.

The latest victim of the blazes died of her wounds on Saturday in hospital.

Those fires came after 64 people died in June in the central Pedrogao Grande region, in what were the deadliest wildfires in the country’s history.

It breaks my heart to think about the people last year when the fires destroyed homes and lives.

When I drive through the highways these days there are people everywhere cleaning the woods. What will happen to us all next summer? We won´t have the same weather, everything will change. The pine trees are gone. The beauty is black. There is nothing, just emptiness.

We have to help. We have to make sure that our little land recovers. The summer is around the corner, the land is different but we will survive.

Now the land is being cleaned where I am going to, with help of my friends, plant 145 trees this year and in the future every year as many as my living years are. That is my contribution. 145 trees is not much in a ravage land but it is a beginning. It sets an example and I truly hope that the foreigners who live all around the country would do the same in their neighbourhood.

A new day and a new beginning is at the horizon. The people in my little land are strong and they will rise up. They are patient, and patience is needed. We have to wait for the little plants to grow and become just like the ones that something or someone destroyed last year.

Thank God for the determination that is now in power in my little land. The determination that is rebuilding and making the land beautiful again.

Hulda Björnsdóttir