HAIFA (Press Release)– Prof. Ido Izhaki, head of the Carmel Research Center at Israel’s University of Haifa, recommends after the massive fire: “Let nature take its course”
“The forest on the Carmel Mountains is adapted to fires. Some vegetation species have developed resistance to fire and some have developed a dependence on fire, such as the Aleppo Pine (Pinus halepensis). We have to let nature take its course,” said Izhaki, who has been researching the Carmel region since its last big fire in 1989.
Izhaki noted that planting new trees on a large scale at this point, following the enormous fire, would be a mistake. “The forest needs to be left alone to recover, with only minimal human intervention,” he said.
The human disaster resulting from a fire are immense – especially in this fire, which tragically took many lives and made thousands evacuate their homes. However, when isolating the ecological and biological perspectives, fires also have a positive contribution to the forest’s growth.
“Following the 1989 fire, we observed the development of flora and fauna in the region and saw that some fifteen to twenty years after the fire, the forest reached a climax in terms of its fauna and vegetation diversity. This indicates that after about this amount of time following a fire, the forest will be home to more species of wildlife and vegetation than there were before the fire,” he explained.
That said, he noted that fires are only beneficial to biological diversity so long as frequency is moderate. Today, due to human factors the frequency of fires is too high, and therefore the forest’s recovery is likely to take longer.
According to Izhaki, the Aleppo Pine has developed a dependency on fire and spreads itself only through fires: the pine cone cracks open only in contact with heat; after that its seeds begin to sprout.
“After this enormous fire too, the Carmel will be covered with pine buds. That is what happened after the 1989 fire, and we can learn from that how important it will be now to thin the sprouting trees. If instead of doing that we set out on planting exercises, we will end up with an overly dense thicket of pines, which would pose an even greater fire hazard for the future,” he explained.
He added that even in great fires such as the one we have just experienced, not all of the trees are completely destroyed; there are broad-leaved trees that are burned from the ground up, but the roots of trees such as the oak, arbutus and pistacia remain vital and will soon begin to sprout again.
“Of course, there are many things that we need to do to fight the dangers that fires pose to human life and property. For example, there ought to be a sterile strip of land surrounding populated areas, so that even in case of a fire in the forest, it will not encroach on such areas. There are also considerations of landscape planning, recreation grounds and the like. So, clearly, there are areas that require intervention, but overall, we must let nature take its course,” Izhaki concluded.
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Preceding provided by University of Haifa