Arsonists blamed on 2 Firefighter Deaths in Spain

Two Spanish Firefighters Murdered on Duty in Night Forest Fire in Galicia

Last night we lost two brave young men in Galicia, Firefighter Julio Martínez Da Silva, 27 & Firefighter Rodrigo Amo González, 35, while on duty as part of a shock force to assess the spread of a night fire starting some minutes earlier in Fornelos de Montes, Pontevedra.

Fornelos de Montes Killer forest fire location and Fire Risk Charts for Atlantic Iberia, courtesy Consellería do Medio Rural - Xunta de Galicia & Instituto de Metereología, Government of Portugal (Click image to enlarge)

According to Fornelos de Montes local authorities, there had been previous arson attempts during the day in the area where the night fire started.

Two Firefighters die on duty in Galicia

Spanish National TV early morning report on Killer Fire at Fornelos de Montes (Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain). Courtesy RadioTelevisión Española (Click play to watch the video)

After painstaking efforts during the night, the Fornelos de Montes fire was finally controlled during Friday morning and put out without further casualties or property damage after burning some 100 hectares of scrubland and sparse tree cover.

Night fire causing 2 Firefighter Deaths in Spain, likely intentional

Spanish National TV afternoon report from Fornelos de Montes, after Galician Regional Government public condemnation of arson criminal acts. Courtesy RadioTelevisión Española (Click play to watch the video)

From here, our deepest condolences to the families of the fallen heroes, and our support to the more than 6,000 Galician Firefighters & Spanish Army Brigadists deployed in Galicia bravely risking their lives each day to protect us all. May the murderers be hunt and brought to Court.

Galician Government Condemns Forest Fire Criminals

(Click image to watch video, courtesy RTVE)

"We will keep working to hunt arsonists. It is a priority to put an end to these criminal activities in our forestlands, and we will increase all efforts so the fight against arsonists keeps being implacable. Forest criminal actions must be detected and their authors must be persecuted and convicted. We will keep working in this Battle against Fire." - Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, Galicia's President.

Galician Government reports criminal fire ignited in 3 simultaneous seats

State Attorneys to Prosecute Environmentalist Crimes

"I do not doubt for a second that the National Environment Attorney Office works daily, 365 days per year, to arrest and convict whenever possible, those responsible of environmentalist crime, which includes forest fires" - Elena Espinosa, Minister of Environment, Rural Affairs & Fisheries, Government of Spain.

Useful Resources: Forest Fire Remote Sensing

You can review online the current state of Global Forest Fires using FAO's Natural Resources & Environment Department interactive tool GFIMS - Global Fire Information Management System, developed with NASA's MODIS Satellite Warning System. Silvicultor has kindly placed a permanent GFIMS Forest Fire Detection Satellite Eye on Northwestern Spain & Northern Portugal at Aula Silvicultura in case you want to track forest fire events in Iberia.

You can also find at NASA's online platform an archive of 10-day Global Fire Maps generated using the MODIS Rapid Response System, displaying fire locations to represent the current global fire activity across the world.

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Cold hardy Eucalyptus forestry in Galicia (V): Biomass in 100 months!

Eucalyptus nitens: Biomass & Bioenergy woods from Galician planted forests (I)

Gustavo Iglesias Trabado
GIT Forestry Consulting SL - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal - www.git-forestry.com - EUCALYPTOLOGICS

At this stage, if you have not heard about the new trends of forestry and planted forests as Vital Allies of the Planet to help tackle the effects of climate change, you are not fully aware that the range of expected products and services sourced from them is way beyond of the purely physically tangible timber. These are times where positive externalities are being incorporated into forestry businesses at unprecedented scale.

Besides their role as carbon sinks, happening no matter what and regardless of the final destination of the organically grown, renewable and recyclable timber produced in planted forests, these days are the days of renewable biofuels, and timber, as the first fuel (firewood) ever used by human beings, is one of the familiar pieces of the puzzle in development.

Fig. 1: 100 month old organic & renewable Eucalyptus woody biomass for energy harvested in Galicia (NW Spain). Also known as firewood harvest trial! (Click image to enlarge)

The main difference from days past to nowadays is that the occasional small scale firewood harvest for domestic use or charcoal is no longer the objective. The objective now is bioenergy production facilities using woody biomass as fuel, and refined technologies to convert such biomass into heat and/or electricity. This means, besides other less efficient fuel sources, the achievement of a stable and sustainable feedstock of woody biomass for energy sourced from purpose made energy crops. Why? Because that way it is relatively predictable, be it for volumes and allocation of biomass supply, delivery timings to bio-energy power plant, expected power output, and costs of heat or electricity unit produced using this renewable and carbon neutral non fossil fuel.

For such scenarios, the existence of trees able to be cultivated in short rotations, with fast enough growth rates to produce a noticeable output of timber (or, if you rather, calories stored in timber) per cultivated hectare, with predictable yield outputs, as low production costs as possible for the timber crop, and as high ROI as possible for timber crop investment, is paramount.

Fig. 2: 100 month old Eucalyptus nitens woody biomass before harvesting. You can see the trees in their whole size, and also a happy forester seeing they behave as expected in fast growth terms for this site! (Click image to enlarge)

So, which multi-purpose trees can have the best potential as woody biomass sources in humid Atlantic climates? Those more efficiently already converting light, water and nutrients into organic, renewable and predictable timber, from sea level to the snowlands. And certainly, very few other than plantation grown Eucalyptus can well match that description!

With a wide scale tree cultivation history spanning over 50 years, Northwestern & Northern Spain are some of the most productive timber hubs in Atlantic Europe, precisely thanks to Eucalyptus. In fact, Galician Eucalyptus timber harvest output currently means 1 out of each 4 logs harvested yearly in Spain.

Fig. 3: Tree Inventory detail showing Eucalyptus nitens fast growth potential (+20 cm DBH- Diameter at Breast Height, 100th month). (Click image to enlarge)

Over 10 different eucalypt species are grown as timber crops in the area, and the range of products sourced locally from these trees is as wide as high quality Eucalyptus solidwood for carpentry and furniture making, raw material for board and panel manufacture, or excellent raw timber for cellulosic pulp and paper production.

Eucalyptus timber use as biomass for energy is something not that new wherever these trees are cultivated. Each of the industrial lines mentioned do already use eucalypt wood as carbon neutral fuel. In fact, all timber based industries do convert part of the incoming raw timber into fuel, be it as non useful for sawmilling pieces of logs, be it as non suitable for board or panel fractions going to the co-generation boiler, be it as suboptimal for pulping fractions chipped and fed to the stove. In addition, some of them also use organic residues from the industrial process, rich in those chemical compounds of wood non useful for pulp, as biofuel. So, in varied forms, wherever an eucalypt based timber industry exists, Eucalyptus biomass is already used as biofuel. A renewable one.

Fig. 4: Sliced Eucalyptus nitens firewood log piece at DBH in its 100th month. Forester boot as size reference. (Click image to enlarge)

So, do Eucalyptus bio-energy crops already exist? Surely, in many places. In as many ways as silvicultural management regimes are applied to these planted tree crops. The diversity of possibilities is large. And the implications of each management regime producing biomass for energy are also diverse.

Purely 100% biomass for energy Eucalyptus timber crops are possible. Different designs for planting and plantation tending are possible. Combined pulpwood plus biomass for energy Eucalyptus timber crops are also possible. In fact, those are the most common variant of Eucalyptus cultivation in planted forests around the world. Combined multi-product planted forests yielding Eucalyptus biomass for bioenergy, plus logs for pulpwood or chipwood for pulping or board industries, plus high value logs for solidwood or veneer lines are also possible!

Fig. 5: Chart for Eucalyptus nitens dry biomass fraction weight and output estimation, developed by our good friend César Pérez Cruzado & collaborators (UXFS-USC) after much tree sampling and much wood laboratory work.

All of them are possible, and they all have their basement on two basic concepts. The first one is simple and well visible in the photo-thread of this article: the trees can grow very fast, shortening production cycles and ROI periods whatever the industrial line the main product of the planted Eucalyptus forest aims to.

The second concept is as old as forestry and the refining of silviculture of planted Eucalyptus forests: you can manage the stocking of your trees along their cultivation cycle in order to be able to extract timber from your tree stand along time, and at once letting the remaining trees achieve whichever desired log size and properties you may want. And, the good part, using the right tools developed by foresters, you can estimate and predict which are the amounts of raw timber, or its equivalent as any product (be it volumes of woodchips, pulp or board; be it dry weight of biomass in each of its fractions; be it power output of each of those fractions per tree or per hectare depending on when they are harvested... whatever necessary!!).

Fig. 6: Eucalyptus nitens Stand Density Management Diagram (SDMD) for Galicia (NW Spain). A very handy tool to estimate overall timber volume in a given plantation for a whole range of tree stocking after basic tree measuring. Also developed by Pérez Cruzado, Rodríguez Soalleiro & collaborators (UXFS-USC).

So, if you put in the same mix a given suitable timber tree, relatively well transferred experience in its cultivation for a given area, a wide array of visible different and diverse ways to grow the trees for different products but always with biomass and bioenergy as part of the equation, good forestry science based knowledge of the potential yield of these trees both from the point of view of productivity per surface unit regardless of how they are grown, and good forestry science based knowledge of the yield of the trees as producers of different fractions of biomass for energy... and you add to that some logistics for delivered cost of supply... and some biomass boiler parameters...

Exactly: you can predict bioenergy outputs from this type of woody biomass for a whole region... and their cost depending where the boilers are! Neat, eh? Galicia rocks!

Also at Eucalyptologics...

Cold hardy Eucalyptus timber production in Galicia (NW Spain)

Cold hardy Eucalyptus frost damage assessment

Eucalyptus in the Snow: Pictorial views of cold hardy eucalypt plantations in NW Spain

Natural Regeneration in Eucalyptus: The odd case of coppicing E. nitens

Eucalyptus hybrids: Phenology of E. globulus and E. nitens in Galicia (NW Spain)

Eucalyptus at Full Gallop: When spring comes

Eucalyptus Silviculture: Making more Money Grow on Trees

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© 2007-2010 Gustavo Iglesias Trabado. Please contact us if you want to use all or part of this text and photography elsewhere. We like to share, but we do not like rudeness.

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Planted Forests: Uses, Impacts & Sustainability... new book!

Planted Forests: Uses, Impacts & Sustainability

Some high quality Food for Thought on Planted Forests has been recently delivered by FAO & CABI. If you are concerned about these issues and want to learn on the History of Tree Planting & Planted Forests, the Multiple Roles they fulfill around the world, what the Trends for Wood Production from planted forests up to 2030 are, who owns and invests in these forests, where they are or what are the trends for Sustainable Silviculture... you should try this as a starting point.

Everything depicted... is part of Planted Forests! (Click image to enlarge)

Planted forests, although only 7% of the world's forest resources, have superseded naturally regenerating forests as the principal source of industrial wood products. Lessening the pressure for wood production, tree planting has released natural forests to be managed for other purposes: carbon sinks, soil & water protection, conservation of biological diversity, recreation & amenity.

Examining the significance of this rapidly emerging world resource, the chapters of this book consider the strengths & weaknesses of planted forests, the varied management objectives for their use as source of wood and non wood products and as source of positive externalities; and aspects of planted forest ownership & policy development.

Planted forest statistical data from key production countries are used by the authors to evaluate the implications and sustainability of planted forests as a source of industrial forest products, as well as their related social and ecological issues. Their critical role for sustainable forestry management and varied perspectives of interest for forestry research, forest policy making, forest planning, land use planning, environmental management and climate change, are also explored.

CABI International - 100 years of BioScience

Also at Eucalyptologics...

Planted Forests: Vital Allies of the Planet

World Forestry Congress 2009 - Planted Forests Session

Eucalyptus universalis: Global Eucalyptus Map 2008

Charta Eucalyptica Brasiliensis: State of the Art 2008

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Eucalyptus Oil Distillation: Hi Tech Methods!

Distilling Eucalyptus Oil: the Scented Medicinal Liquid Gold

Eucalypts are multi-purpose trees. We have explored together numerous examples of it here in Eucalyptologics along time, from high value wood product uses to excellent raw timber for pulp and paper manufacture, from honey production to ornamental use, from ecological restoration to CO2 capture.

But there is one classic use, starting as early as the days of the First Fleet, that played a major role for the early expansion of Eucalyptus cultivation around the world in the era of the Fever Tree: the medicinal Eucalyptus Oil.

Just some weeks ago we were approached by some Eucalyptus fans with a crazy idea: Why not doing again what the early pioneers did and has been done since with these plants to show the people of today why Eucalyptus trees have always been considered "trees of good health"?

So, we decided it was a good idea to roam around the Eucalyptus Coastal Belt of Galicia to find a suitable place in which to collect the necessary amount of fresh eucalypt leaves to fulfill the request. And we did so using the latest local technology for harvest (Fouciño Method).

Once harvested, selected, cleaned and sorted out, the massive initial amount of Eucalyptus foliage, rich in essential oil glands, and hence rich in raw Eucalyptus oil, was reduced to the minimum volume possible and weighted before starting a long journey away from Nova Australia!

And that way, the Eucalyptus Oil Trek started for those fresh leaves, all the way from Galicia in Northwestern Spain to the grounds of the EucalyptusFeest 2010 in the Netherlands!

There in the EucalyptusFeest, Mary Rouw (EucalyptusKwekerij KOALA) and Hans Prins (de Groene Prins Kwekerij) had assembled a jungle of exotic plants that visitors could look at, touch and talk about while the Didgeridoos played. Among the ornamental plant stock, Mary's cold hardy Eucalyptus, suitable for gardening in the Netherlands, brought to the event from KOALA Nursery grounds for the amusement of those suffering from Aussie fever.

And then Henk Ploeger (aka Henk the Alchemist) started doing his thing: the Eucalyptus leaves left their bags and landed in the Alembic, getting ready to be well steamed in order to extract the Eucalyptus Oil contained within. Not so different from how the Eucalyptus Oil Industry started back in Australia in the 1850's.

"Trasmutation" of such raw biomass as Eucalyptus leaves are into the desired small fraction of Eucalyptus Oil means, as for any essential oil, the need of as closed a circuit as possible to avoid the loss of volatile fractions. That is the reason Catharina seals the Alembic chamber with hi tech materials (Rye Flour Method), which will become solid as cement as soon as dry. And once this is done... the fun starts!

The Eucalyptus Oil Fest process is simple: boiling water produces steam, which flushes through the load of Eucalyptus leaves, heating the contents of the oil glands, which volatilize and are carried on by the steam away from the chamber through the funnel, until reaching the serpentine. As that last part of the circuit is cooled, the oil rich steam condensates and becomes a liquid hydrolat: oil rich essential water, or crude Eucalyptus Oil.

Like a kettle brewing tea, the Alembic must boil for time enough as for the steam to extract the major fraction of oil from the load of Eucalyptus leaves. Time enough to share funny exotic plant stories and to wonder if there will really be some visible outcome from this.

And there it is the visible result, once the excess water content of the crude oil mix is removed, for the amusement of oil distillers and surprised visitors. Essence of Galician Eucalyptus, organically made in the Netherlands.

Success then at the EucalyptusFeest 2010. Not surprising if we consider Eucalyptus globulus has been, for a long time, one of the most widely cultivated species used for essential oil production due to the abundance of oil glands in its foliage, and the richness of that oil in the desired aromatic compound: cineole.

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Contact GIT Forestry Consulting - Eucalyptologics

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© 2007-2010 Gustavo Iglesias Trabado. Please contact us if you want to use all or part of this text and photography elsewhere. We like to share, but we do not like rudeness.

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