During the last weeks of February and the first weeks of March 2024, Agresta S Coop has coordinated the execution of the last pending demonstration stands corresponding to action C2, together with those executed by the University of Lleida in Barcelona. In this case they correspond to actions in public forests in the town of Teresa (Castellón), and the towns of Sádaba and Zuera in the province of Zaragoza.
In all three cases, these are restoration actions for burned areas in which natural regeneration has not been installed. In the case of Mount Teresa, in Castellón, it was affected by the Andilla fire in 2012, and later by the Bejís fire in 2022. For its part, the Sádaba and Zuera mountains were affected by fires that occurred in 2020 and 2016 respectively.
These are actions that began more than a year ago, with the search for locations, for which there was collaboration from the Government of Aragon and the Generalitat Valenciana. Subsequently, the work continued with the analysis of the local bioclimatic conditions and the design of the plantations, which led to the search for seeds from the different regions of origin of Pinus halepensis selected in each case, and to the plant production work in the nursery forestry of the Government of Aragon in Ejea de los Caballeros (Zaragoza), thanks to the collaboration of this public administration with the LIFE project.
Thus, after the characterization and analysis of the stands of action, this winter of 2023-2024, 6 different origins of Pinus halepensis were dug and subsequently planted in the case of Zuera and Sádaba, and 7 in the case of Teresa, for the demonstrative implementation of assisted migration within action C2 of the LIFE ADAPT-ALEPPO. These origins have been the following:
- Teresa (Monte CS3045 Almagra y Cerro Gordo): Alcarria (ES07), La Mancha (ES08), Maestrazgo-Los Serranos (ES09), Levante interior (ES10), Bética Septentrional (ES14), Bética meridional (ES15), Alaquás (Huerto semillero HS-24/46/001 de Alaquás, Valencia).
- Zuera (Monte Z0262 Las Fajas): Ibérico Aragonés (ES05), Monegros-Depresión del Ebro (ES06), Levante interior (ES10), Bética Septentrional (ES14), Bética meridional (ES15), Alaquás (Huerto semillero HS-24/46/001 de Alaquás, Valencia).
Sádaba (Monte Z0216 Bárdena Baja): Cataluña Interior (ES03), Bardenas-Ribagorza (ES04), Ibérico Aragonés (ES05), Levante interior (ES10), Bética Septentrional (ES14), Bética meridional (ES15).
The plantations carried out have been around 750 plants/ha (500 specimens/ha of Pinus halepensis and 250 plants/ha of accompanying species (holm oak, kermes oak, juniper, hawthorn, etc.), in the 2 ha of surface available in each of the stands. In each stand, 4 sub-stands or plantation polygons have been established for each of the tested Aleppo pine origins.
The position occupied by each provenance within each sub-region is randomized, in order to ensure that there are no geomorphological or physiographic agents that favor the growth of some over others.
Each of the planted Aleppo pine specimens carries an identification label, which will serve to keep exhaustive monitoring of its development. This monitoring has begun at the moment of its plantation, when data related to its position, height, diameter and ontogenic state have been collected.
This type of forest restoration proposed with the LIFE ADAPT-ALEPPO project, pursues the recovery of forest lands that have suffered some degradation process, improving their environmental quality, reestablishing their functionalities and favoring their dynamic evolution, towards more stable and ecologically mature stages. through assisted migration, where a selection of Aleppo pine origins will adapt to the new climatic conditions better than others.
