It is belatedly that we are writing this short article to mention some of the activities organized by the BBT Forest group in collaboration with our friends in Lurgaia. Back in January the BBT Forest group organized an excursion to see a large area of land in Derio which has fortunately been abandoned to nature. Part of the land in Aiartza used to be home to Bilbao`s plant nursery but has long been abandoned and periodically used by young people for raves despite the fact that there are many dangerous holes which you could easily fall into at night. The fact that some have been filled up with bags full of cans and bottles is testimony to the fact that it has probably happened. Apart from a clean-up, (the land is apparently owned by a bank) the place could easily be turned into a managed forest which would be part of Bilbao`s green belt. Let’s hope that in a future article we will be able to say more about this potentially wonderful space.
In February, the Forest group was again active in the Emerando area of Mungia where, in collaboration with Lurgaia, many different native trees were planted on land offered on a custodial basis by the members of BBT, Jaione Uragarena and Mikel Sarasola. The original idea was to buy the trees ourselves using money that we had from our carbon compensation scheme (we hope to do this on an even bigger scale this year) but in the end Lurgaia still had enough trees so we will use that money in a tree project elsewhere. It should also be said that this event was organized as one of the activities of Aldaketaldia which for the second year around brought ecologist groups from all over the Basque Country together to commemorate the anniversary of the Zaldibar disaster , each one doing acitivites in their respective areas in order to denounce environmental problems and present solutions.
Finally, BBT members were present in Bakio where eucalyptus tree stumps were removed and replanted with native trees as part of a project between Lurgaia and Bakio Town-Hall to recover the native forest. The moratorium on eucalyptus tree planting has provided breathing-space to re-think our policies but it unfortunately also allows replanting of eucalyptus trees in places where they already are. Surely there must be a limit put on the percentage of eucalyptus trees that can be planted in any one area? In the case of Bakio there are even trees inside the Biosphere, just as there are in Urdaibai. This is something unacceptable in any future forest management plan!
