An again, as every year, the north is on fire
Since I can remember, from February to April, the mountains of wide regions of North Spain are set on fire, year after year "as it has always been done". When you live in the city you don't understand these fires, they are on TV and you get nothing about the context, you wish they will be extinguished soon and feel sorry about the nature and the villages. People from cities that are closer to the region, like Santander, have also little clue about what is going on and why end of winter - start of spring means smoke in their streets. When I moved to the valley, I could not understand either. People seem to know who are those who set the mountains on fire, but they are reluctant to talk about it, specially if they feel you are totally out of clue.
I could not understand how the people who are extremely proud of their roots, fight everything to keep their rural way of living alive, claim a profound love for the mountains, the cattle, the songs, their folklore, their green valleys... I could not understand how they set fire on the mountains year after year.
These days, specially today, our Valley is burning like I have not seen in the past years. Each year I feel like leaving, not returning back to the mountain house. The fire was yesterday few meters away from my home. Not that I was worried about my house, though, somehow it looked clear that it won't come my way. But the nature... I am speechless.
I wonder how this is managed in other countries, but these are the reasons in mine:
In a land where we get a lot of rain and sun, plants and trees tend to grow very quickly. People from the area, which has been dedicated to cattle herding, have the belief that if you let it grow, the land is lost. Very understandable up to here. So from ancient times, livestock herders set up controlled fires to keep the land open from February to April, and in May, the hills will be covered with a thin grass that cattle likes very much, mostly cows (from Tudanca breed) and horses (caballos asturcones).
If the cattle is not able to keep up with the land, the hills get covered with what they call "escajo", I believe the English word is gorse, and "brezo" which should be heather. These scrubs and bushes are the needed step to the germination of trees. They would protect the young trees in the first years.
The situation in the last decades is that there are less and less cattle herders, and therefore the animals are unable to keep the hills "open, green and clean" as the trained eyes of these herders are accustomed to see since ancient times. Instead of deciding which lands will be returned to nature (let the forest take over), and which to keep open (with the fewer cattle and occasionally controlled small fires), herders of the area want to keep it all open. Which is impossible with just the cattle so they set immense fires every year, and because there is a lot of material to be burnt those fires are wild.
Why do they want all the area? No doubt there is a fear of nature taking over what they remember always as cattle fields. Traditions, social way to protest against the reintroduction of the wolves, and actually, herders use the fire to protest against any aggression done to the rural community, which are plenty. However, there is something darker going on. It is called "PAC", or "The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)". It provides financial support to farmers to ensure sustainable agriculture, rural development, and food security. The money they get is linked to the extension of the area where they move the cattle. Ironically, the EU is founding somehow the fires every year.
Because of the recurring fires (the valleys burn every year, with the same areas typically affected again every 4 to 7 years) the hills are each time poorer in nutrients, and in many places you can already see the prime rocks, almost no soil, and after that, not even the gorse will grow there. Is the end of that part of the land, almost impossible to recover.
The rains will drag the ashes and dust to the rivers, killing many fluvial animals, with a special mention to some animal I'm sure you never heard about which is called "desmán ibérico". I have never seen one in my life, but they are still there, very endangered.
A group of people (also herders that are not involved in any of this) are claiming to change the law so once the land is burn, it cannot be used to cattle in 5 years. Also, they want the PAC to be removed for burnt land. Nothing is achieved just yet in Cantabria and Asturias, but other regions did with great success, much less fires.
Apart from the valley set in fire again, me joining a band, liking it and trying to adapt, just to get fired from it, having two concerts in sight that I'm not willing to prepare, considering to buy an electric car for first time in my life, and being really down about my job (got Claude code which is fantastic but somehow is getting all the fun part, I'm just an orchestrator of robots and agents and I'm not sure I like it) - I feel low to medium energy, and hope I can finally get to talk about my pond one day.