Portugal's Deadly Addiction to Eucalyptus // Profit Over People

[@uberraschtedame1510]

As a person that remembers the landscapes of Portugal from 50 years ago, as a mountaineer and trekker since I was 11 years old, I can remember a different landscape to the endless "green dessert" of the Eucalyptus Globulus plantations. Another perspective for Portugal and the EU: You are obviously now aware that you are strolling in a highly altered landscape that has been totally transformed since the mid eighties, of the XX century. The changes introduced in the forests and agricultural ecosystem produced awful results, the mountains and villages where abandoned, the EU "forced" the young people out of their villages and into migration, by promoting the closing of small farms and rural business, because France, Holland, Denmark... wanted to maintain their production quotas without the competition of cheaper products (milk, meat...) , the lands were abandoned by farmers and ranchers etc... You are looking at an environmental and economical disaster, that is why so many places are empty or abandoned and the property is cheap. When the lands were cleared of people the EU, the corrupt environmental ministers and the paper corporations (The Navigator Company) with their terrible paper mill plants began the replacement of beautiful natural forests and centuries old agricultural land and meadows, with huge extensions of monocultures of highly combustible species that do not store moisture in the undergrowth, favor environmental dryness and desertification such as Eucalyptus Globulus or Pinus Pinaster, or the horrible Australian Acacia (Mimosa). With them came the terrible fires to Portugal. What they planted and how it was planted created a powder keg. It's like storing gasoline in the mountains piled up on endless slopes. Every action generates its reaction and we are reaping the results of a corrupt and speculative forestry policy. They have destroyed the ecosystems and transformed them into heavily altered landscapes, Third World monocultures. (like rubber plantations in Indonesia). "The more eucalyptus mega-plantations were planted in Portugal, the dryer became the environment, less fog, less cloud formations, less rain, more masses of monoculture trees laden with eucalyptol (alcohol), trees 40 meters in height crowded against each other, en masse, drying the soil, drying the aquifers, drying the environment. True green deserts, without any kind of biodiversity, industrial and explosive plantations at the service of the paper mills of Ence or Portucel (Navigator Group). The soil, biodiversity, agriculture and the population. Where are the magical Atlantic forests, full of deciduous trees, with undergrowth loaded with the moisture stored from all the rains from autumn to spring, from Galicia and Portugal? the cork oak forests and oaks from the Portuguese interior, which were burned and eliminated in the 1980s and 1990s so that forest communities and owners could plant Eucalyptus Globulus seedlings, highly combustible, the raw material of the insatiable paper mills. The European Union and Spanish and Portuguese politicians don't give a "****" about the environment, biodiversity and climate change. They are all poses and slogans for the gallery, they talk about preserving the Black Stork or the Iberian Lynx or the Cantabrian Capercailzie, while they devastate the ecosystems with millions of eucalyptus. Pure garbage. Pure third world, monoculture industrial plantations!" See *ARTICLE 1990 (article from the newspaper -1990- on the topic).

[@oakolive]

Thank you for your comment! It’s very interesting to hear from people who have seen a different landscape. In our valley, it seems the eucalyptus has been there so long our old neighbour couldn’t remember a time before. I’ll definitely check out your article. While I think on the whole the EU has brought good to the people, I’m very disappointed particularly with agricultural policies. They don’t have the best interest of the land and the farm at hand and are too slow in any case. But I have hope that this will improve over time, especially if they finally overhaul the stupid carbon credit system that gives subsidies to such plantations.

[@jackportugge5647]

You are absolutelt right, and well informed, this whole problem has been created by design together with the population aging, we have gained nothing with the EEU. Driving to Spain or another country without having to be stopped and identified at the border is really cool, but it doesn't pay the damage.

[@carmenmunteanu437]

As a fellow European affected be many EU dictates, I mostly agree. However, EU had also brought many improvements to the governmental standards & policies of corrupt & greedy governments. One thing I disagree with is the statement that land/property in Portugal is cheap. It's anything but. Property in Portugal is overvalued so much today that you have WW2 state of land with ruins (abandoned as per your statement) sold today at 2023 prices, which drive up the inflation & continues to drive out the very people it meant to belong & nurture. No one can afford to buy, restore & live on this beautiful land, unless is sold to foreigners that come with own funds, skills & love to re-buid or restore it to its rights. Then again, no one can do so in a vacuum and, as we all know, getting the trade people to show up when & where needed, on time & within budget is, to say the least, a great challenge to achieve! But again, in our being received so kindly by this wonderful People, we are all doing our best to make them proud.

[@jeanrichardson2044]

Similarly, in NZ large plantations of pine have been planted to support the timber industry. Recently during cyclone Gabriel the slash from the timber felling( pruning, bark tree trimmings) contributed hugely to the devastation of the East coast, clogging rivers, taking out homes, and roads. When the trees are gone, opportunistic scrub mostly non native, comes in their place. Now some are wanting to plant eucalyptus. Very scary. Excellent presentation.

[@oakolive]

@@jeanrichardson2044 Back in 2014, I actually worked on the North Island NZ for a bit with an NGO taking out invasive species by injecting them with pesticide to protect the Kauri. Seeing what happened there after the cyclone has been devastating and considering the unique nature of NZ, I hope there's enough pushback against the Eucalyptus. You'd never get rid of it again...

[@uberraschtedame1510]

PART 2 For example, if ENCE leaves Galicia, the main buyer of Galician eucalyptus wood is withdrawn from the market. The Asturian plant would remain, in addition to the Portuguese one in Viana do Castelo, but the withdrawal of demand from the Galician plant would produce an oversupply that would lower the prices of eucalyptus wood. Eucalyptus wood is very cheap, and a good part of the cost would be carried by transport costs if it had to be taken to Portugal or Asturias. All of this would dramatically undermine the profitability of eucalyptus, seeking other alternatives for producers and, as a consequence, remitting the eucalyptization of the Galician mountain. The other alternative: if a new concession for the Pontevedra plant is approved, ENCE has assured that it intends to expand its capacity by 184,000 extra tons of paper pulp (the paper, in case you don't know, is not manufactured in Spain, we only we destroy our forests but the pasta is shipped and the process of high added value, and the profit, is carried out in civilized Europe). We would therefore be in the opposite case, a greater demand for eucalyptus wood would raise prices and introduce an incentive to further extend eucalyptus crops (with the new species more resistant to cold, colonizing the space that remains, the Asturian mountain and Cantabrian and inland Galicia). We are simply risking the lives of our forests. And that match is going to be played in the next few days, a few weeks. That is why I beg you to increase the pressure on the government as much as possible so that it does not sign this extension. Find out about the matter, write about it, spread the information among your acquaintances, whatever comes to your mind. They are also your forests, defend your right to be able to come here and enjoy them, what remains; to trust that one day your children will be able to know an Asturias, a Cantabria, a Portugal, a regenerated Galicia, with Nature in a better state than our parents left it to us. Or those forests could, if we fail, be irretrievably lost, subjected to the unavoidable logic of the market. But the main benefit of the closure of a plant is many kilometers from it, in the uninhabited villages from whose mountains the eucalyptus trees grow. The climate of these coasts is privileged to grow all kinds of crops, with much greater added value than eucalyptus. Eucalyptus is a crop for lazy people, because it is planted and you don't have to return to that plot until fifteen years later, when it is time to cut. After cutting, you do not even have to plant again because they sprout again from the foot, and wait twenty years this time, because the land is depleted and the trees grow slower and slower (sometimes arable land, fertilized and enriched for generations to be able to give tomatoes, corn, potatoes to support a family ... they are occupied and weakened in the course of a generation by a grandson without respect for his land and his past). In this way, with a cultivation that hardly requires labor, the villages are depopulated until they fall into abandonment. How different it would be if part of those lands, the best ones, were used for pastures, or the cultivation of fruit trees, vegetables or legumes! Very labor-intensive crops, but profitable because they are much more productive, which would create tens of thousands of direct jobs, plus many others in the associated food industry, setting population and generating wealth in a rural area that is now abandoned. It is the so often demanded need for a spatial planning: agricultural lands, to be worked and obtain the maximum benefit from them; we have a land and a privileged climate to feed half of Spain. And the forest land, reserved for native species. If in the former the criterion has to be the maximum benefit, in this the guideline must be the conservation of the environment and respect for biodiversity. But it is also that well-preserved native forests can provide a complementary wealth, as our European neighbors teach us. There are other countries in Europe in which the forestry sector is very important, Austria, Finland, Slovakia, Ukraine, and all of them take advantage of its wealth without having to commit the ecological crime of introducing alien species. The two main Austrian economic sectors are forestry and tourism. Proof that, by acting intelligently, you can maintain a beautiful, well-preserved environment and obtain economic returns from it. Neighboring France, a world leader in the use of biomass, because after the rural exodus it allowed the regeneration of its forests, and now they are the main source of heating in rural France, avoiding imports of hydrocarbons. There is the market for mushrooms and other forest products, and the enormous possibilities offered by ecological tourism. What visitor is going to want to visit an environment that is ugly, a horror, totally devoid of wildlife? What is the common opinion of tourists when they arrive in Galicia and those oak groves that they promised me? Where are those enchanted forests? If there is only eucalyptus! I want to be proud, and not have to be ashamed, of my land in front of strangers. And it is that the eucalyptus is an accurate indicator of economic and social underdevelopment. In Europe, the only States where its cultivation is allowed (and encouraged, and subsidized) is in Spain (ENCE) and Portugal (Celbi and The Navigator company-Portucel), despite the fact that climatic and soil conditions even exist throughout the European Atlantic façade. more conducive. In the world, only underdeveloped countries, with civil societies subject to the dictates of power groups, destroy their ecosystems to plant non-native species: Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Indonesia ... There is not a single developed country that allows the outrage of destroying their forests autochthonous, displaced by an invasive species, however much it suits their industry. Civilization or barbarism. * Taken from a document from the ENCE itself: Only in Galicia there are more hectares (396,000) dedicated to the cultivation of eucalyptus than in Australia, its place of origin! Between Spain and Portugal, we have 59% of all the Eucalyptus globulus in the world Does this make any sense?

[@theindieprojects]

Great video & super important topic! After being through a wild fire here in Portugal & having to deal with and continue to overcome the damage it caused along with the grief we wouldn’t wish it on our worst enemy.

[@oakolive]

Last year was a bad season for fires. Best of luck with your project!

[@veronicabalfourpaul2288]

Eucalyptus forest is like a desert. Thank you for making this important video.

[@ambykp8940]

Yes do the fire break clear cut- essential! Bit by bit you’ll clear & bring the land back into harmony 🙌🏼

[@chica2000ok]

Very interesting. In 5 years we will immigrate to Portugal. We already knew about the Eucalyptus fires in Portugal but we did not know the trees are not native and are planted.

[@gigglesandchaos5443]

Loved this video. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, ideas and possible solutions with us. So grateful for people like you who are chipping away at a faulty system and shining a light on the path to a brighter future for The People. Even though you get knocked back a step every now and then, your resilience is admirable and your gains are an inspiration. X

[@denisehayes195]

I just signed up for the newsletter, I hope Jackie gets the job🤞 I remember watching the 2017 fires on the news, it was terrible. Do you watch Andrew Millison he has a video about wild fires and permaculture, you probably know all this but just incase. We have huge pine plantations that are dead zones as far as nature is concerned and we have bad fires in the summer, governments never appear to learn from previous mistakes💚

[@oakolive]

Yess, it’s a fantastic video and gave us some ideas of how to move forwards. The plantation system as a whole needs to be overhauled sadly, but with the demands of the economy, I don’t really see this happen soon…

[@gigglesandchaos5443]

Andrew Millison rocks!! His content should be taught at school worldwide.

[@mariamartins-w6l]

i am living in Canada province of Ontario Canada has huge Forests but no Eucalyptus but yet province British Columbia are facing a huge forest fires for months and Canadian forests no Eucalyptus I believe the Portuguese problem is the lack of controlling the forests by monitoring with park rangers because most of fires 80% are caused by criminal hands solution any of these criminals caught the justice Dept . should impose very harsh penalties giving them life sentences replanting all the burned forests with new trees this would give a great example to others they will think twice before committing this horrible crime also I am agreeing with you regarding better maintenance of properties clearing all bushes grass trees and maintaining proper controls of EUCALYPTUS also 15% cause are people working hot days with gas powered machines 5% caused by nature lightning storms

[@oakolive]

I don’t think the Canadian situation with forest fires is quite comparable, as Canada has completely different climatic conditions and the forest fires are fuelled by different factors. Compare it to fires in Australia. The choice of tree is the biggest problem here (high fire risk, ecological dead zones), right after that it’s the lack of management in our opinion.

[@BuTanka]

I love your channel. You bring profound problems and explain so clearly

[@antoniocarvalho-ys6jj]

HELLO. IT'S PEOPLE LIKE YOU WHO HELP THE COUNTRY TO BE BETTER! CONTINUE THE EUCALYPUS AND POISON, IN ADDITION TO FIRE, THEY DEGRADE THE SOILS AND CONSUME A LOT OF WATER! AND OF AUSTRALIAN ORIGIN. I LOVE BEING YOUR FOLLOWER

[@kayf7073]

Your channel is so great for learning about Portugal. Very educative, very deep coverage, lot of food for thought. So enjoyable. After following your facts and arguments, I completely agree with your conclusions and demands. Thank you very much for bringing that up (now we only need more people to listen to your channel) Btw, I am also impressed about your English, btw, I hope I will get to that level sometime as well.

[@oakolive]

Thank you! There’s so much more to this topic that I couldn’t even include in this video! Oh, and English definitely gets easier with lots and lots of practice :)

[@lisamo128]

Wow. Yes the lack of wildlife in North Portugal is unnerving. I didn't quite make the connection between that and the ecological deserts of the plantations until you mentioned it. Quite sad.

[@skurinski]

Depends. Gerês, Montesinho and Douro Internacional national parks in the north have plenty of wildlife

[@FrankieOffGrid]

Super interesting, thanks for sharing so much info, I'm intrigued to see how your forest changes as you work with it :)

[@oakolive]

💚

[@donaldhanson8990]

If you do the clearcut and replant, please do a series of videos on it. Maybe I’ll do the same.

[@oakolive]

We will document the whole process 🙂 we write about the topic quite often in our newsletter if you are interested: oakandolive.substack.com

[@Solo50plus]

Excellent video thank you for sharing :)

[@DavidPaulNewtonScott]

You have cheered me up there is another person like me who cares.

[@teresaedwards3659]

Good work!

[@ChrisLambert-Yngvegodi]

Very good

[@oakolive]

Thanks

[@missglenellen]

Great information about medronho, as it grows here in the Southwest of Ireland as well. I need to have a fire break because of insane gorse fires around here. As much as eucalyptus oil is a great helper for us aromatherapists, it is a deadly threat in Portugal. Your analysis is excellent. I write and speak (own podcast) about greed, money, unsustainable agriculture etc too, mainly regarding the essential oil industry.

[@oakolive]

ugh, the essential oil industry is a whole book for itself and zero regulation as well... Also had to fight my way through gorse in NZ, worst experience of my life in terms of pain haha! It makes a good wine though, in case you haven't tried it yet!

[@lolitabonita08]

I have a bachelor in environmental studies and biology...As I was watching the video I really agree that we need to wake up the government and people...a dead soil, lack of diversity and the whole issues with erosion can be restored...but if nothing is done the country will be a dead pile of land...people will move away and then what? People have the power, have the voice to change things...and we can do it...I am planing to move to Portugal...so now i can do something for mother earth...

[@heathermorgan2265]

Great video found it very interesting 👍

[@iwanabana]

I wonder if you could team up with Mossy Earth and start a de-eucalyptus campaign and movement in Portugal and Madeira!

[@oakolive]

That would be a dream! We really love the channel, maybe we should actually reach out to them!

[@maryr7593]

Project Kamp has been looking at it as well. They usually have 25 volunteers at time...some speak Portuguese. Getting the info out to locals who never knew anything different will be very important. Also I read that when Eucalyptus burns it releases a toxin in the air. That toxin poisons everyone who breathes it. It would be interesting to find out how toxic the air quality is with the fires. Surely universities have done research on this. It's a pity the Eucalyptus leaves couldn't be used to feed koalas in Australia who survived the fires but still need food.

[@jteau2239]

You guys should have at least 100k subscribers! Excellent video!!

[@lisakasprzycki]

To do something about this problem is extremely important !! Especially the harvesting technique.. loss of biodiversity should be #1 wake up call to end the current ways .. in hawaii, the eucs / pine were planted, while native forest was bulldozed into the gulches 😢 since the 1930's.. they line roads .. and i learned to fear them because they FALL so easily. Hardly any tap root.. terrible hazard .

[@shahlatavakoli2084]

Thank you 🙏🙏GoodLuck

[@Reet64]

There's so much opportunity for the government to start up programs for young people to work doing this land management. It's an incentive for them to stay if they have gainful employment. If they have gainful employment, they can pay taxes to help these programs continue. The reduction in the fire risk makes other people feel safer to come and invest. It seems so basic. Yes. Government needs the backbone to stand up to these industries and to provide opportunity for young people to stick around and prevent further decline in these areas. Thanks for your hard work and comprehensive information.

[@maryr7593]

Someone commented that the govt has stock in the paper industry there. There Will be no govt will to do anything if they own stock in the company. That seems like an extreme conflict of interest.

[@lindalagarce8996]

I would send this video to the companies that are making the paper from the wood so they are aware. And include a proposition of them to replant with the tree that are more useful rather than the pines and eucalyptus to reduce fire possibilities and help the erosion. Just a thought.

[@skurinski]

Northwestern portugal used to be home of temeprate rainforests

[@blankslate6393]

Your plans to replant native species is so noble. You are literally going to cure the landscape. Just wondering what precautions have you been taken in case another horrible fire erupts?

[@oakolive]

We are working to make the land near our house less flammable and the longer term plan is to transform the Eucalyptus plantation into a native forest that is less flammable. We plan to use animals such as sheep and pigs to manage the undergrowth in the forest which should help reduce the risk of fire.

[@jennybuzek2091]

Clear cutting small patches might work but if you clear cut large areas you will have massive run off and erosion during the wet months. It might be best to clear and plant small areas where the eucalyptus can provide some shade for the seedlings. ONce they are established, cut more and more larger radius areas and plant them. Glad that you are raising awareness of the harms caused by this monoculture gone wild!!! You might have a look at Project Kamp to see if they have info on areas they have cleared and how the native trees are coming back.

[@lfuentes4098]

Good idea. I was shaking my head hearing how awful the clearcutting was for the land and was exciting to hear how this couple was going to go about clearing their forest of deadly eucalyptus. And then to hear they were going to clear cut it. 😮🤔 😅 But i totally understand the need. I can see a gradual process. Attacking the stuff very close to their home or village first and then gradually clearing it and planting native non invasive species.

[@christine2014]

Thank you so much for your resarch and for making this video. I had no idea that Portugal's landscape had been so terribly altered by these huge plantations. The consequences are absolutely tragic. Portugal needs brave people like you to start reversing the damage, but it must be a daunting prospect. I live in France, in a very different climate, and I've seen the results of introducing non-native trees (in this case, spruce) for what was supposed to be a quick profit. Luckily, fire isn't an issue here, but nothing grows under a monoculture of spruce. These plantations have now mostly been removed, in many cases thanks to Natura 2000 subsidies. Farmers/landowners here will do anything when there's a subsidy attached to it... We just have to hope that subsidies go in the right direction. I have also learnt through your videos and the comments that EU policies have had devastating consequences for countries like Portugal. Again, something I didn't realize. It will be so interesting to follow your journey, thank you for taking us along!

[@oakolive]

Great news when a plantation is rehabilitated! The E.U is really complicated 😬 nice to see you along for the ride 🙂

[@jackportugge5647]

An endless plantantion of eucalyptus is not an ecossystem, both you and other experts before have said and showed this, but as you already figured out, profit over people has been the motto of our rulers, as well as lack of long term thinking, everything is planned and done with only two concerns: quick money and election timing. Another native tree that is highly resistant to fire it's the chestnut tree. Great vid!

[@oakolive]

I wouldn't call myself an expert, when I was reading up for this video I definitely realised that there's enough material for a lifetime out there 😅 unfortunately short term thinking is a human issue, we can't seem to create a world that is built on long-term ideas...

[@jackportugge5647]

@@oakolive When people go to work they want see their money at the end of the month or the end of the undertaking, but rulers of nations are not living on a a basis of wage-slavery. Trees take at least 20 years to grow, if not hundreds, when i plant a tree i'm not thinking just about myself, i know i'm doing somehting good for the world and coming generations. This is no news to Oak & Olive, but unfortunately most people don't think like this, including our rulers!

[@sylve3456]

How to remove them efficiently without damaging the soil like the big machines do ? Are there smaller machines to get rid of them and prefend for it to grow back ?

[@oakolive]

Our plan is to cut them down, them carefully manage them, killing some of them by reheated cutting, eventually new trees will replace them and we can kill all the eukalyptus by repeated cutting.

[@jannekewittebol5911]

Great video. Portugal is struggling definitely with the issue of (young) people moving away to the big city or abroad, leaving the land to the older generations. This creates the current problem as you describe. Question is how do the people return to take care of the land, jobs of any sorts can be created. How do you see this?

[@oakolive]

Although I do not claim to know much, I think there could be some small ways to lead us to a (at least slight) improvement: improve internet connections and pricing in rural areas so more people who live in the city can comfortably work from home. Also, create funds to subsidise young people living in the countryside to take care of these issues. Unfortunately, this creates a new issue with class privileges (white collar workers can return to the land but blue collar workers cannot due to lack of work). But if you're just looking to improve rural population rates, I think this could be a way.

[@srantoniomatos]

Hi, love your work. May sugest species of native forest other then quercus (6 native species) medronheiro, olives and pines (pinheiro bravo). Specially bushes, many times very much underlooked. The "underbrush" is very important, althou more dificult to manage. Sanguin das sebes; loendro, rosa canina, pinheiro manso e bravo; cipreste; azevinho; alfarrobeira, folhado; buxo; murta; pilriteiro; pereira brava; bordo; abrunheiro; loureiro, freixo, teixo, salgueiros, sabugueiro, lavanda; alecrim; tomilho, erica; cistus; aroeira; giesta... Pines (pinheiro bravo) in our clima and soil can be used as native pioneer tree. Its one of the best adapted, grows fast, and produce wood and mulch, as well as a deep tap root... Non natives (non invasives): casuarina; romanzeira, nespreira, figueira, nogueira, yuca; citronela, malvas; gerânio. Many of these are easy propagated by seed or cuttings. And also semi easy to find in nurseries. I also have some of this in excess i can share with you. I live near you (leiria district).

[@oakolive]

Hi, thanks for the comment 🙂 can you send us an email and we can discuss this in more detail? [e-mail]

[@gee3883]

Would be interesting to see if you could graft other species of trees onto the eucalyptus roots.

[@oakolive]

Indeed an interesting thought path, though from what we read grafting only works within specific families (I.e. we could graft another eucalyptus onto the existing ones).

[@NextStopThailand]

Absolutely love this content! Thank you for addressing this! My question is… do the leaves and debris from the eucalyptus change the ph of the soil? Really what I am asking is why does nothing ever grow under Eucalyptus trees?

[@oakolive]

Off the top of my head, I don’t know about pH. The leaves and bark contain oils that hinder growth of other species. After you’ve composted them, they can be used as mulch.

[@asc3184]

The comment of Uberraschte Dame is on the nose. So are yours. Thank you for your video. This nauseating attitude of the big economic interests disregarding what they are doing to our habitat the overlass numb indifference of the public at large ... i grew up witnessing these changes. The way business is done is the burned earth policy destroying everything on ita path. Make as much as u can now even if this means economic suicide in the near future. They give new meaning to "apres moi le deluge" with their myopia. Thanks again for ur video.

[@pinheirokde]

Problem is there is no one to take care of the land, and the land is not very good for agricultural usage specially In the mountenus regions of the North and Central Portugal... The land owners moved to the city and just let eucalyptus grow... Remember we are a poor country... And the state itself was one of the main sherolders of one of the largest paper mills. The profits are needed by the country to pay for things like education and healthcare... And still we go bankrupt sometimes. But your plan is great please do that, thank you for returning the land to life.. hopefully you can make fruitful and we don't need eucalyptus plantations...

[@teresaquintinha7361]

Very interesting video. You mention one factor that for me is the base of everything: there is no people living in the interior and treating the land. For some land owners that live in the coast or in the big villages or cities, the eucalyptus is a way of getting some money from the land without being there, as eucalyptus grow by themselves and when cut give to owners some return. Without being controlled, eucalyptus will expand, bringing a green desert to our country. As a Portuguese I'm very worried, and collectively we should ask more action and decision to our government. If in the North and central Portugal the eucalyptus is taking space to native species, in the South, we will have a desert soon with the intensive farms that cut also the native species to have space for other cultures based in profit and taking advantage of new forms of slavery. We had and have government that do not control the country neither have agriculture policies. In this respect each one of us is to be blamed as individually we do not do much.

[@oakolive]

Yes! There’s also the fact that the logging companies pay a lot of money to take over your land. They promise people it’s better that way, they clean and maintain it etc. but that’s just not the case. This is why I think there needs to be way more enforcement of rules. The GNR drive through our valleys on a regular basis but none of them care that trees grow within 10m of houses. We need to go to the Camara ourselves and threaten to cut it back.

[@DavidPaulNewtonScott]

If that is your land drill the trees and fill with sodium chlorate Make sure you grow all trees straight.

[@junqueira2445]

Hi, I’m portuguese citizen searching for a place in the outback of Portugal to settle myself and my family. Would you consider to meet each other and get to know the areas around you and see if I can find a place for me and my family? Look forward to hearing from you!

[@ridetofreedomf.e.3039]

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@samsamidis5300]

Great video congratulations. Unfortunately my experience is that Portuguese people have on average no interest in changing this situation. Maybe I am wrong but this is my feeling leaving there. One question. Does anyone knows any organisation in Portugal or Spain that fights against this issue?

[@monicacruz4407]

If you speak Portuguese, could you run for office? Portugal needs people like you. Loved seeing the pigs eating acorns, subscribed 👍

[@oakolive]

The farm is our passion 🙂 also we barely have enough time to keep this place running and the little one needs a lot of energy plus earning money to pay for it all. It's a nice thought though, thanks ❤️

[@monicacruz4407]

@@oakolive of course, it was a bit of English humour. I’m sure your hands are full. I was just making a comment about the lack of political will in Portugal. I am in Spain and there’s a similar problem with pine deserts. Regenerating land, however small is the best thing one can do to protect life on all levels. Wishing you all the best 💚

[@drzeworyj]

wow, 60 casualties in one fire? it's terrible. I think it's only been 2 for the whole of Spain in 2022.

[@oakolive]

That was a bad year when so many bad things happened at the same time. Most years the death toll is much smaller, similar to Spain.

[@hemlock40]

The problems caused by the non native eucalyptus trees is how the use of land and wood has changed in 300 years. Up until recently most winter heating is from wood burning, especially in the rural areas. With the steady decline of people, the eucalyptus trees grew unchecked for nearly a century. Now we're paying the price in wildfires. The wood warps easily so it isn't good for making flooring, house construction, or furniture. Here is Portugal it is primarily paper, as you mentioned, and roof rafters. The trees, like most things in nature, has to be intelligently managed. The paper industry says that they are the ones are reducing overgrowth and managing their plantations, while the trees grow unmanaged on tens of thousands of abandoned farms in the countryside. That can't be blamed on the paper manufacturers. Who should be?

[@oakolive]

Who to blame? That's very difficult to answer. In the future though we will release a newsletter edition that relates to the topic. oakandolive.substack.com

[@hemlock40]

@@oakolive The eucalyptus problem goes back centuries before the current paper industry. As far as the abandoned farms being overgrown -- a woman inherits an old 5 hr farm from her grandparents, 3 hours drive away. That woman is now 75 with arthritis. She has no heavy equipment or big trucks, and very little money. Anyone in central Portugal who has tried to hire a team of landscapers to clear brush and cut trees knows how difficult and expensive that is. And it has to be done at least every few years. She tries to sell but it sits for a decade waiting. The government might issue fines but she can't pay. Eventually the government might just take over her land and then it will again sit unmanaged for another 40 years growing wildfire fuel.

[@skurinski]

Another problem is criminal activity most of these fires are started by humans and they go unpunished. Ecological crimes arent taken seriously

[@YTC9]

European (excl Scandinavian) forestry has more value in conservation / carbon credits / recreation / tourism / environmental protection / flood/ erosion /avalanche control and species protection rather than price at the sawmill. The tax break / financial aspect is a red herring, there has been a specific plan to depopulate the countryside everywhere throughout the EU and what better way to do it than by asking people to live in a box of matches, as conspiratorial as it may sound they knew what they were doing! Incidentally NGO's like the RSPB here in the UK often insist Gov'ts (Forestry Comm) clearfell thousand hectares/yr as part of wider EU ground nesting bird protection plans thus making it politically difficult to maintain continuous cover. Important subject here, fire incidence is on the increase, personally i'd cut them Gum trees right back, if poss use as shade nurse / mulch depending on soil moisture levels. Good luck, you've a big job on 🙏

[@lolitabonita08]

So solutions??? Thing out the trees, clean up the debris in regular basis, irrigation so the trees do not dry out, plant descidious trees, stop planting lots of pine...those are the ones i know so far...there are solutions

[@oakolive]

This is what we plan on doing, but as I said in the video, this is work for a lifetime. So we’re doing it a lot slower, since we have so many other projects.

[@lolitabonita08]

@@oakolive if all turns out as planned i will move there this year... The good thing is I have someone that works in forestry and was a dean of prestigious school that have extensive knowledge in how to deal with the problem.. one person plus another plus another will start the ball rolling ...yes, one can not dive into the whole project because there is a life to take care off, children and so forth...vs. me that i only have two furry children to take care off...will see what our Creator have in plan for me and how I can (we) assist mother nature in taking care of the problem. Blessings and thank you for caring.

[@LiLBitsDK]

you should do a clearcut... and then plant native trees... could even get some trees for free for restoration projects in Portugal... was it Howard's Portugal or something like that, that got like 5000 trees to plant with a wide variety of native trees. another way to make it less of a fire hazard is also to have more water features, so collect more water, soak more water into the ground, grow more plants that keeps the ground cool (bare land is so much hotter and drier than plant covered land) and plowing the land to "clear it" as they do in most of Portugal is SUPER DETRIMENTAL and kills the soil, causes errosion and causes more local drought because the water just runs off and vanish instead of being soaked into the ground and into plant material... there are some super good videos about this on YT as well and you can clearly see the areas that practice this vs. conventional drought prone land...

[@oakolive]

That's the plan! We have our own nursery and will investigate EU/government funding as well as crowdfunding to do it.

[@LiLBitsDK]

@@oakolive I dream on getting enough land to be able to restore a nice patch to the original tree species instead of those eucalyptus horrors... but main goal for now is to get one big enough for some homesteading... but any extra land will go into that

[@antoniodasilva1230]

Remeber its a win lose kinda thing people make money ten times in a lifetime on sales from the wood and it makes the best paper and lumber the negative is fire and it sucks water like crazy its a win lose kinda thing but you make what you want but like California nature is also a factor

[@johncooper5293]

Very sensible to remove the Eucalyptus and create a fire break. Not all the EU's fault as it is a hard life farming and many left to find better work in towns and cities. Others emigrated all over the world. More recently the EU freedom of movement meant it was easy to find work throughout EU. I met an Amazon driver from Portugal in UK. He said he can earn far more money than in Pt (I'm surprised as cost of living in UK is high and Amazon don't pay that well). I can see how hard the winter has been for you with a new baby and all the problems you've had. Not for faint hearted!

[@jonmatthews4254]

Errr cut your pine and eucalyptus, sell, and with the money, replant as you desire. Manage.

[@DavidPaulNewtonScott]

I don't see why the cream of Portuguese men should risk their lives putting out fires of these bloody trees. If you want timber eucalyptus is good wood but to be honest we would do better with prunus laurcerus Portuguese laurel or chestnut. Forest fires are NOT a big problem in Portugal. Eucalyptus fires are.

[@oakolive]

A big problem with eucalyptus plantations (forest plantations in general) is that there is no ecological balance. We will be removing our eucalyptus plantation (over the span of many years) and focusing our energy on growing a healthy, mixed woodland, that provides a wide array of natural habitats for many different types of creature and can provide forage for our animals and fruit/nuts/firewood for us too, whilst encouraging the forest to rejuvenate its self. Thanks for watching.

[@victorjoaquim2813]

Everything you said is true, but I don't see you clean your own land is a big mess and hover grown

[@oakolive]

These things take time. We explained our plan in the video...

[@lolitabonita08]

the eucalyptus plantations started because a company wanted raw material to make toilet paper...so the toilet paper is part of the problem and greed is the major issue. Having some eucalyptus is good, since we need diversity in forests but as time and time again nature teach us how stupid we are...one must have diversity all over the land...Eucalyptus tree is great for wood burning and construction but also is medicinal...but hey the dark ones do not want you to know the eucalyptus is MEDICINAL just in case.

[@LiLBitsDK]

there are plenty other tree species to use if you want diversity that isn't invasive...

[@lolitabonita08]

@@LiLBitsDK yes, there is a system in which u have the tall trees, then you plant medium size evergreen trees and then smaller ones underneath or close to the other trees, this system help to retain water, avoid erosion, and serve as habitat for other critters...there is a grid and a plan so when is time to harvest the tall trees, if that is the plan, the other trees will not suffer or kill along the way...

[@maryr7593]

I live in US, near a natural area ....we have had a summer season of baby animal families in our woodpiles. Fox family, woodchuck family, wild turkey family helped themselves to my fenced blueberry bushes and a racoon family. It turned out the mother raccoon was coming to our deck all spring robbing the stray cat's food. None of families stayed around long....except the raccoons who must stop at our first thing it gets dark. We also get deer in the winter (northern US by Great Lakes)....they eat from the bird feeders as well as Yew bushes and trees. I wish I could find a tree or bush to grow that would provide food for them to eat throughout the winter. We end up not putting out bird food because they are emptied overnight.

[@lolitabonita08]

Hello Mary...the poor animals are hungry, with the hot weather food and water is hard to find. I am so happy that u care about them, that u care about mother nature...definetly we need more people like you...I suggest put bird food during the day and take it inside during the night...but live some for the other "customers" that love to dine at night...blessings to you and yours.@@maryr7593