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As wildfires erase forests, Greeks argument: to replant, or not?

When a wildfire tore down a. hillside towards Athens last month, its southernmost flank. stopped in a treeless area burned by fire two years in the past. A few. miles west, nevertheless, the blaze found fresh fuel: woods and scrub. that provided a course towards the city's residential areas.

In its way stood the leafy village of Penteli, where Marlena. Kaloudi has lived considering that the 1970s. The fire swept through her. house. However what harmed most when she returned was the sight of her. pine trees, some over 100 years of ages, charred to an autumnal. brown.

The most significant catastrophe ... is not our house - this can be. brought back, stated Kaloudi, sitting by her gutted back deck. It's. those trees that were here before us and we hoped and prayed. would be here after us.

The devastation is a familiar sight in Greece and throughout the. Mediterranean region where fires have ended up being more regular and. strong, driven by greater temperatures and drier conditions that. researchers connect to environment change.

In the Attica region surrounding Athens, blazes have. destroyed 37% of its forests and meadows considering that 2017,. according to information launched in August by the National Observatory. of Athens, a government-funded research study centre. More than 60% of. broad-leafed forest and 41% of coniferous forest has actually been burned. and has not completely regrown.

The loss raises the risk of flash floods from rains on. denuded grounds no longer safeguarded by tree canopies and root. systems, in addition to greater air temperatures brought on by the. heating of unshaded ground, desertification and poorer air. quality, four experts stated.

It has actually likewise ignited an argument about what the government. reaction ought to be: continue with a program of replanting trees. that might offer fuel for future fires, or, as some scientists. desire, search for brand-new methods to adjust.

For Kaloudi, it's an apparent choice. After the last fire,. which went on to smother the city's northern residential areas, her. neighbours asked her to cut down the staying trees in her. garden. She refused.

The loss of this forest frightens me, she stated. What. scares me is the fact that there are individuals who want to cut the. trees that are left.

PLANT MORE TREES?

Wildfires have drastically modified Attica's landscape,. satellite images show. Hillsides, forested a few years earlier, have. become bald and rocky. Locations where forests do resprout are often. reburned. Bird song has actually vanished with the trees.

Data from Global Forest Watch, an effort that utilizes. satellites to track deforestation, shows that of all the. fire-related forest loss in Attica given that 2000, 74% has actually taken place. since 2017.

Greece is not alone. The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on. Environment Modification (IPCC) has actually highlighted the Mediterranean region. as a 'international environment hotspot', with an increase in surface. temperature levels of 1.5 C from pre-industrial levels already driving. an increased threat of wildfires and drought.

Wildfires are also a growing danger in the United States,. Canada, Australia, and even the rainy United Kingdom. With that. threat has actually come an argument about what to do with a forest once it. has actually burned.

Some wish to replant trees to bring back root systems and to. recover lost carbon sinks. Others state forests and fire zones do. not mix.

Up until now, there is no clear evidence of which side is appropriate,. and regional elements identify what is best, the 4 specialists said. Still, some say a rethink is needed, specifically in areas where. the same locations are being repeatedly burned.

There is no terrific consensus on what to do, stated Camille. Stevens-Rumann, associate professor of fire ecology at Colorado. State University. Individuals typically want places to look like how. they did before, but that may not be suitable in a new fire. program.

Greece desires its forests back. With the aid of 450 million. euros from the EU, the federal government has embraced a nationwide fire. prevention plan that likewise consists of planting 1 million trees in. Attica.

The increase of greenery and its conservation is not only a. objective of the government but of the entire European Union, said. Efstathios Stathopoulos, Greece's General Secretary of Forestry.

The EU has a strategy to replant 3 billion trees throughout the bloc. by 2030, although the plan is not concentrated on replanting after. fires.

Not everyone believes resowing forests after fires works.

Theodore Giannaros, a fire meteorologist at the National. Observatory of Athens, surveilled a hillside outside Athens. blackened by last month's fire.

Next year, he said, the ground there, currently baking in. summer, will be even hotter for the absence of shade. The loss of. tree root systems will make the soil looser, increasing the danger. of floods or landslides, he said. There will be more dust.

Less flammable vegetation like some kinds of turfs or. agricultural land is the response, not trees, he said.

We have to seriously concentrate on how to bring back the landscape,. not just planting trees and forests, however in a way that will. be ... more durable versus natural catastrophes.

Fernando Pulido, teacher of forestry science at the. University of Extremadura in Spain, advised planting crops. or creating other barriers between dense forests in the. Mediterranean region.

This involves a modification in mentality ... however it's the only. method to guarantee that there won't be another fire at the very same. place after eight or 10 years, he stated.

THE FALLOUT

Meanwhile, areas previously untouched by fires are being. hit.

Thodoris Arvanitis has actually been a natural farmer on a 100-acre. plot in a woody location north of Athens for 35 years. He had actually a. school for aiming farmers, living quarters for employees, and. rows of polytunnels for his fruit and vegetables.

Last month, most of what he developed - up to 1 million euros of. devices and crops - was burned by the fire. Now, the sheet. metal of a gutted farmhouse clatters in the wind. A line of. newly planted fig trees is wiped out; stacks of charred. potatoes have actually been delegated rot.

Not all the crops were lost, and Arvanitis plans to reconstruct. On a current afternoon, personnel bagged up aubergines, french beans. and melons for delivery to consumers.

But he had a hard time to include his feelings when he talked. about the blaze, which was brought towards his home on the. surrounding trees. Without any assistance from the fire brigade, he. depended on other residents to help that day.

We were putting out fires occasionally. However new ones kept. breaking out. At some point we could not do anything more. The. fire was right outside our farm..

(source: Reuters)