Simulations are very common that show what Europe was like full of forests not long ago in geological age, the deserts of North Africa overflowing with water and fish or the union of Asia and America in the North that allowed the later called Indian tribes to follow ruminants until they distributed and settled on the “new” continent 14,000 years ago, which reinforces that lapidary question of Juan Luis Guerra of “who discovered who”.
However, there is a scientist who longs for a good designer to recreate what the surely immense cedar forest that accompanied Teide (from Izaña to Ucanca) must have been like just a breath ago in geological time, although much more so if vision and vision are applied. human action. Is called Manuel Nogalesis a delegate of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC, from the Ecology and Evolution group)member of the Teide Board of Trustees and professor of Biology at the University of La Laguna who spends much of his life between the Canary Islands and the Galapagos.
Nogales never tires of emphasizing that the Canary Islands should feel privileged not only for the paradises they enjoy (despite everything), but for living in one of the richest places in the world in biodiversity: for its flora (600 endemic plants), fauna and geology. Although the urban and natural contrast between coast, midland, mountain and high mountains is gigantic and should continue to make us reflect on our wanderings, this professor highlights the plant and animal richness that occurs in much of the Islands, the spectacular nature of corners such as Las Cañadas and even increases the natural relevance of Teide by assuming that there was that forest, compared to previous doubts.
As explained on Thursday at the Telesforo Bravo Conference of the Institute of Hispanic Studies of the Canary Islands in Porto, a study that he leads and began in 2014 has confirmed its existence through the droppings of blackbirds (especially the white-capped blackbird, which emigrates from Europe and rises again). and lizards, as well as other animals that secondarily expand seeds by feeding on those others (kestrels, shrikes…), according to the pioneering thesis of David Padilla.
This research, which has the key contribution of scientists such as Beatriz Rumeu (who did her thesis on this), will be published in December and maintains that this forest occupied a large part of Las Cañadas. In an almost scoop that those attending the conference enjoyed (since he has already explained it in others), Nogales stated that this forest was so lush that the Guanches had to burn it to be able to cross what, much later, became the most visited national park in Europe and the second in the world, after Yellowstone. They did it not only to function more comfortably alongside the feared “god” Echeyde, in that romanticized Nivaria, but to be able to go from North to South and vice versa, graze with their goats and even practice their humble agriculture at those high altitudes.
However, it was these burnings for 2,000 years, until the Castilian conquest, one of the key reasons for the increasing decimation of the forest and clear proof of the damage that humans cause in natural environments (or the entire planet, as climate change demonstrates that Nogales remembered again on Thursday despite so many denialists), Of course, in the case of the Guanches, for pure survival. And, unlike the Canarian pine, which usually resists fire and resprouts easily (after a year and a half or two; in fact, it settled in the land of volcanoes), the cedar cannot withstand fires and is completely lost. , as demonstrated by fires such as the one in 2007, which affected the specimens in the northern part of La Fortaleza.
After the arrival of the Castilians (although Nogales remembers the initial weight of the Portuguese, which is reflected in a wide genetic and cultural heritage, such as the word “mojo”), cedar was used for almost 5 centuries, especially by its prestigious wood. Although the uses were varied, until the last decades of the 20th century there were carpenters who created the famous cedar boxes. The biologist himself pointed out on Thursday that, according to what an older man from the Port told him, there was no upper-class girl worth her salt who didn’t have a box like that to keep her clothes.
These factors caused the ancient forest to almost disappear and, for a long time, its existence was doubted. However, since 2008, the Nogales team, which had marked everything in the park, began to discover that the original processes were being reestablished, that the common blackbirds were beginning to rise in winter and that the blackcaps had been there for thousands of years. coming regularly (not occasionally, as science said) for its nutritious and resinous fruits after analyzing its feces.
The CSIC had mother and child cedar plants from what was burned in 2007 and donated them to the park. Thanks to this, the European diploma was saved after that fire and powerful repopulation can now be carried out in the three areas where specimens remain: Siete Cañadas and Montaña del Cedro, using La Fortaleza as a reference. As he emphasizes, what happened in this last enclave has served as an incentive for the administrations and, although this plant “takes it calmly” (the sexual maturity of the females occurs from the age of 13 and the fruits take 2 to mature) , hopes that in 1 or 2 decades the recovery can be called a forest. In fact, there are already more than 3 hectares in La Fortaleza, increasing its number fivefold.
The evidence that made them conclude that Teide was surrounded by this forest derived from the analysis of the white-capped blackbird (captured for half an hour using Japanese nets), since it was not normal for it to descend regularly when November arrived, despite the few specimens of cedar trees. This bird, which has migratory routes in its DNA, was and is key in the expansion (before, there were also crows, as with the junipers, but there are almost none of them anymore). Lizards are also relevant because, although they barely reach a radius of 100 meters, their number and influence in a small space contributes and allows us to fight against one of the big problems for these cedars to thrive: the action of rabbits and mouflons.
The relevance of this recovery is confirmed by the 2,000 specimens that already exist, it is reinforced by the fact that blackbirds and lizards disperse the seeds all year round and it is also occurring in Taburiente (La Palma), where male specimens of 2 meters in diameter, more than a thousand years old and, along with those from Tenerife, the ones located furthest south on the entire planet. Furthermore, its importance is even greater if one considers that, of the 6 species of fleshy fruits in Las Cañadas, 4 are threatened with extinction, with the cedar being the one that now has the longest life expectancy after a scientific discovery a few years ago that, However, it should not hide the great risks of the park. And, despite this good news, “Teide is a sick system,” as he warns.
The serious problem of bees due to the loss of pollinators
Nogales, an unbeatable surname for an irreducible lover of nature who comes from a family of forestry engineers and who takes refuge in his Tacoronte farm as a calm and existential boost, warns about the honey bees in Las Cañadas and in any field that is not monoculture when pollinators disappear. As he emphasizes, this contributes to the biological collapse that occurs when, as happened with the cedar, species disappear and, with them, a large chain of fauna. “Contrary to what many think, these bees are not good pollinators, since they steal honey and displace the natural ones, which developed with the plants in evolutionary times and are more efficient. In fact, there is a 2018 study by Alfredo Valido that proves it. It is something that cannot be seen, but that has a lot of influence and that must be stopped in time.”
