Reacción a "The rapid spread of extreme fires can lead to long-term changes in vegetation"

The article shows how fires in coniferous forests in the boreal and mountainous regions of North America are becoming increasingly extensive, severe and are spreading at a faster rate. Despite the methodological limitations arising from the exclusive use of satellite data and its relatively coarse spatial resolution – as the authors themselves acknowledge – the results are compelling. The increase in days of extreme weather due to climate change, combined with the higher tree density caused by decades of total fire suppression, has created the perfect conditions for mega-fires to occur in these boreal and mountainous coniferous forests. To reverse this trend, the authors propose restoring low-severity fires through tree thinning and the use of prescribed burns.

This study invites reflection on the situation regarding fires on the Iberian Peninsula. The massive afforestation of pine trees during the second half of the 20th century has resulted in extensive, homogeneous conifer plantations—in many cases with high tree densities associated with a neglect of management—within a Mediterranean landscape where fire—a different kind of fire—is an intrinsic component of the ecosystem. It is true that the peninsula has native pine forests (such as the natural stands of Pinus pinaster or P. halepensis), but 20th-century management ‘domesticated’ and propagated them, carrying out afforestation on an unimaginable scale to convert the countryside into timber plantations, whilst neglecting the long-term consequences. If we add to this abundance of fuel the increase in days of extreme weather due to climate change, the result was predictable: uncontrollable mega-fires. It is not just how much burns, but how it burns. These continuous forest stands destroy the natural mosaic, homogenise the landscape and impoverish biodiversity. And, when they burn, they destroy the resilience of the land. Admittedly, they proved highly productive. The question is: for whom?