It is common to talk about forests in the summer, especially because of the effects of forest firesAlthough it is common, we should not live it normally, since forests are a fundamental green infrastructure for all the benefits they generate (environmental, social and economic) and it seems that forests are only remembered when they burn.

The Forestry Consortium of Catalonia, as an entity that brings together forest owners, ensures the dissemination and promotion of sustainable forest management of forests, because it is in this way that we believe that only resilient forests can be available and prepared to face catastrophes such as pests, drought and also fires. When we talk about management, we refer to the fact that forests, as a living ecosystem, must be worked on, that is to say: thinned when there is an excess of trees per hectare; thinned when there is an excessively high and developed shrub layer that competes for nutrients with the trees; pruned when we want to produce quality wood; cut down when the trees have already reached their vital limit; regenerated or reforested after a cut to guarantee the persistence of the mass, and also because, if necessary, they are not cut down to recover old fields of cultivation that the forest itself had invaded due to the abandonment of agricultural activities. And without forgetting to have a powerful network of forest roads and tracks as basic infrastructure necessary for forest management, and at the same time, many of these roads will also serve for the prevention and extinction of forest fires.

The importance of preventing large fires

Managing to conserve and improve forest masses implies facing some actions that have a negative economic balance associated with them. And it is in these cases that the support of the administration and society towards forest owners-managers is needed so that the management of the forests can be guaranteed.

It is very important to ensure that forest fires do not start, but it is also essential to prevent these fires from becoming large forest fires, what firefighters currently call sixth generation and which are beyond the capacity to extinguish. Of all the fires that occur annually in Catalonia, less than 11% become large forest fires (meaning a large forest fire is one that burns more than 500 hectares), but only these large forest fires affect more than 75% of the hectares burned. These large fires have evolved at the same time as climate conditions have changed and the biomass available in the forest has increased.

The key: forest management

And it is at this point that forest management takes on a crucial importance: a well-managed forest will certainly prevent a small fire from getting out of control quickly. Management allows us to have a forest mass without vertical continuity of fuel (thinning and pruning), allows us to remove surplus fuel (thinning, improvement cuts and selection cuts, selection of plots) and at the same time create discontinuities to create a mosaic landscape (recovery of pastures, broken and thorny areas).

It is necessary to work together between forest owners-managers, GRAF-Firefighters and ADF to have forests prepared to avoid large forest fires and with elements such as PEG (Strategic Management Points) and AFG (Management Promotion Areas) well planned so that they are operational, viable and effective for what they have been conceived.

It is necessary to plan, promote and execute forest management throughout the year because forest management becomes key and fundamental for the prevention of forest fires.

Josep M. Tusell

Forestry Consortium of Catalonia