Paula Fernández |
Madrid, May 2 (EFE) .- The rainy spring has filled reservoirs, has relieved drought in Spain and has grow of vegetation, which is more fuel available to burn, but experts say that it will not necessarily imply a higher risk of forest fire, which will depend more on the summer meteorology.
Satellite images before and after the rainfall episodes show how the Iberian Peninsula has dyed green and has recovered vegetation even in areas that were in a critical situation, such as Doñana’s marsh.
Is this a direct risk for summer forest fires? CSIC researcher Cristina Santín, a fire expert, is clear: «NO, because for that vegetation to me it has to be dry. That is where the other variable, atmospheric time or weather comes in, ”he tells Efe.
Uncertainty regarding rainfall
The State Meteorology Agency (Aemet) reported that there were between 60 % and 70 % probability that the quarter formed by the months of April, May and June was warmer than normal, although it anticipated a lot of uncertainty at the level of rainfall.
“If no adverse weather episode occurs, which we know vulgarly as heat waves, episodes of high temperatures and low relative humidity, the plant will endure, more or less, until the middle of the summer,” the dean of the College of Forest Engineers in the community of Madrid, Carlos Madrigal, tells Efe.
But “as soon as the first heat episodes begin,” the vegetation will begin to dry, especially the herbs and pastures that this year have triggered their growth, which could generate fire problems, although “of little ejundia,” according to the forest engineer.
The changes in the landscape, more important
More than the rains, the experts consulted by EFE agree that one of the biggest problems in Spain that increase the risk of fire are the changes in the landscape and the abandonment of the traditional uses of the mountains and forests.
Before the field was worked more and its wood was used, but its abandonment has contributed to the vegetation, in many cases, grow more uncontrolled and more exposed to burn and contribute to spread the fires.
«Spain is greener now than 30 years ago, which is great for many things. But greener means more vegetation and more fuel for fires. If you add that climate change makes this vegetation dry more days a year and more susceptible to burn, there you have the combination, ”explains the CSIC researcher.
Heat waves in Spain are becoming more frequent and extreme due to climate change. A mosaic landscape with traditional uses, such as agriculture or extensive livestock, which break the continuity of the landscape and make “firewall”, is an essential measure of prevention, Santin insists.
The holding scientist of the Forest Fire Institute (ICIFOR-INIA, CSIC) Javier Madrigal insists that the main cause is the absence of management, and climate change acts as an “accelerator.”
“The availability of fuel is an amount that depends much more than we have accumulated these years, on the absence of management, which makes that biomass accumulated in the territory, and not so much on the specific rains of this spring,” he tells Efe.
Prescribed fire
This specialist urges that, especially in a year like this in which there is a lot of vegetation available, the fire “for our benefit” is used, with techniques such as those of the “prescribed fire” to reduce the fuel load.
This technique is that forest services burn small branches, dry sticks, herbs and fine parts of the plants, which not only contains the propagation of fires but also “to encourage certain ecological processes” in these areas.
“If there is a fire that just runs that year with a prescribed burning that you have made recently, it usually is there, or decreases so much intensity that is very easy by extinction to get that flame front,” he explains.
Experts also remember that most fires have human causes -intentional or negligence -, so education and awareness are also fundamental to reduce the number of Ignitions, as well as the improvement of alerts.
