Greece needs to implement its national forest policy on mixed tree planting, including species that may be non-native but fire-resistant, forest specialist and forester of Kilkis Giorgos Vourtsas told Praktoreio 104.9 FM, Athens-Macedonian News Agency’s radio station, commenting about the recent large fire in central Evia that started at a Natura-network forest,
“We are a Mediterranean country, and our native forest species are fire-prone species,” Vourtsas said, pointing out however that natural fires help forests regenerate. “It is part of the natural life cycle that some types of pine will at some point will burn down, and this benefits them during regrowth, with revival following their burning down – this relates to self-generating trees,” the forester explains, but added that as difficult as it may be, Greece needs to import “trees with wide leaves which resist fires, restrict them and help in their prevention.”
Vourtsas also added that despite the public’s conception that Greece is losing forestlands to fires rapidly and irrevocably, “If one looks at the mosaic of Greece forests, what they were like 20 to 30 years ago and what they look like today, they will notice that our forests are expanding, despite the fact some are burning down.”
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