The Ministry of Rural Environment and Agricultural Policy of the Principality of Asturias has launched the bidding for the works of forest restoration and improvement of infrastructures of the mountain in the El Cerco agreement, in the council of Valdés. The budget amounts to 153,960 euros, with funding from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), and the objective is to recover a public space damaged by the wildfires of spring 2023.
Companies interested in executing the project may submit their proposals until 14:00 hours on September 22. The action will focus on an area of 32 hectares, owned by the municipality, with the aim of restoring the vegetation cover, increasing the productive capacity of the mountain, and reducing the risk of erosion. According to the regional government in a press release, the works will respond to the effects of the wave of fires recorded between the end of March and the beginning of April 2023, which forced the felling of almost the entire wooded area of the northwestern zone.
The plan includes the reforestation of 16.56 hectares with 26,496 maritime pine (Pinus pinaster) seedlings, from the Central Forest Nursery of La Mata, with a density of 1,600 trees per hectare. This planting aims to accelerate the recovery of the land and halt the advance of invasive vegetation. With this approach, the Ministry aims to "contain the expansion" of invasive exotic species such as acacia and eucalyptus, which have shown intense regeneration after the fire.
To protect the quality of the waters of the basin that flows into the Vieya stream, a tributary of the Esva River and integrated into the Regional Network of Protected Natural Spaces, the department has chosen to rule out the use of chemical herbicides. Instead, a dense planting that casts shade over the invasive species is favored, combined with mechanical and manual clearing throughout the execution period of the works.
The project also includes the improvement of 2,488 meters of forest tracks, considered "key" for the management and defense of the mountain. These works encompass the regularization and leveling of clearings, the profiling of slopes and ditches, as well as the construction of 32 earth fords to channel surface runoff. The intervention is completed with manual clearing, the thinning of native species such as oaks, chestnuts, strawberry trees, birches, and hollies, and the cleaning of access to the municipal water intake. Likewise, the protection of cultural heritage is guaranteed by excluding the perimeter of the castro Cerco Los Moros from reforestation.