This Wednesday, February 28th, marks one year since the arrival of storm Juliette, which hit the Tramuntana mountain range and other parts of Mallorca and caused serious damage to forest plots and agricultural and livestock farms. Today, the Conselleria de Agricultura, Pesca y Medio Natural continues working in the areas most damaged by the storm, which affected a total of 14,167 hectares of forest, damaging more than 1.4 million trees (mainly holm oaks, pines and wild olive trees). So far, a total of 117.7 hectares have already been restored, distributed among the municipalities of Escorca (54.65 ha), Selva (30.74 ha), Fornalutx (8.83 ha), Bunyola (8.71 ha), Felanitx (7.91 ha), Mancor de la Vall (4.85 ha) and Manacor (2.01 ha).

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One year after the storm Juliette

The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment, Joan Simonet, accompanied by the Director General of Natural Environment and Forest Management, Anna Torres, today went to Sa Comuna de Bunyola, one of the areas most affected by the storm, to take stock of the work that has been done and to explain what will continue to be done. The conseller, who has shown total satisfaction for the work done during all these months, explained that the actions carried out have been made either in public or private properties that, according to the IV General Plan of defense against fires of the Balearic Islands and the corresponding regional plans, represent high-risk areas. Above all, work has been done on cleaning public roads and fire prevention strips have been made.

“Since it is not possible to act on the entire damaged area, the objective at the moment is to continue fragmenting the affected forest area to make it more difficult, in the event of a fire, for the fire to spread and, at the same time, to facilitate the action of the firefighting operation’s resources,” said Simonet. To achieve this general objective, the damaged trunks and branches are felled, which are either removed from the forest area or crushed on site. The conseller explained that the aim is to reduce the accumulation of dry biomass within forest areas and, ultimately, the fuel load (less firewood or dry wood in the forest) and its continuity (that the firewood or dry wood that remains is as separate as possible from the vegetation that has survived).

Simonet has valued the great effort made by the Conselleria to restore the affected forests. In this line, he assured that “it is a priority that forest management is focused on preventing fires for the next season”. In the same way, he took the opportunity to thank the work of technicians and workers of the Balearic Institute of Nature (Ibanat), as well as Tragsa staff, who work in the restoration of forests: “Their work has been and is essential to maintain the natural landscape in a good state of conservation, all for the benefit of the population of the Balearic Islands”.

For his part, the manager of Ibanat, Tomeu Llabrés, who along with the head of the Forest Management Service of the Government, Joan Santana, accompanied the councilor on the visit to Sa Comuna de Bunyola, has detailed that in the last year other types of work have also been carried out. In this sense, Llabrés explained that large amounts of fallen branches from the accumulations that were on the road network have been crushed. Plant health tasks have also been carried out, with the installation of traps for pine boring insects to prevent population explosions that could cause damage to the vegetation.

However, Llabrés said that Ibanat continues to carry out restoration work in affected areas located in public estates, recreational areas or prevention infrastructures included in the regional forest fire prevention plan. The forecast is that these tasks will be completed in May and will be restarted in October. In addition, Joan Santana stressed that in the case of the management entrustment to Tragsa to carry out reforestation actions, which has a budget of 1.2 million euros, it is expected to be executed until April 2025.

Aid

On the other hand, the Minister Joan Simonet recalled that the Agricultural and Fisheries Guarantee Fund of the Balearic Islands (FOGAIBA) has convened a line of aid to repair losses and damage caused by the storm in Mallorca. On October 31, 2023 was published the resolution of call of these aids using which 4.46 million euros are distributed among the forestry sector, the potato sector; the olive grove and carob tree sector; the restoration of infrastructures of the agricultural sector and for the sheep and goat sector.

Within the deadline for applications, which ended last December 7, a total of 145 were submitted. At present, and in just over two months, 51 files have already been approved, with an amount of 575,206.62 euros (specifically 34 of the potato sector, with an amount of 555,358.38 euros, and 17 of the sheep and goat sector, with an amount of 19,848.24 euros). “Applications are being reviewed and inspectors are being sent to review the affected plots in the olive grove and carob sector. We are doing everything possible to resolve the files and that the beneficiaries can already receive the aid,” said the councilor.

In this sense, in the specific case of the aids to the forestry sector, Simonet has stated that “the intention is to encourage the affected farm owners to carry out cleaning, restoration and preventive improvement of the plots”. These aids (1.3 million euros) will allow the beneficiaries to carry out up to 260 hectares more, located in the farms or agricultural holdings that were registered in the census of agricultural, livestock and forestry holdings affected by the storm Juliette. As in the olive grove and carob sector, the applications are also being reviewed and, once the inspectors check the state of the plots, payments will begin to be made.

With everything, the conseller has announced that during the next months the FOGAIBA will also publish the call for aids for the prevention of forest fires (PIFO), which will also mean a boost to deal with the damages of Juliette, with an amount of approximately two million euros. It should be emphasized that the last time these aids were called for was in 2019. The objective is for the beneficiaries of these aids to carry out forest clearing focused on fire prevention.