Tablas de Damiel doomed?
October 18th, 2009 | by nick |
The latest chapter in the sad demise of the Tablas de Damiel, once one of Spain’s most important birding sites, makes depressing reading. The underground fossil peat deposits have been on fire for several weeks. The lagoons have suffered from the building of thousands of agricultural irrigation wells which have caused the water table to drop to the level of the peat, which has then been heated up over the summer and started to self-combust. El País
The Guardian has also reported on this story.
Spanish wetlands shrouded in smoke as overfarming dries out peat. National park which was once a ‘paradise’ now on fire and churning out tonnes of CO2. They are meant to be Spain’s most important inland wetlands, but yesterday the lagoons at Las Tablas de Daimiel national park were not just dry, they were burning. Stilted walkways stood on baked earth and rowing boats lay stranded on the ground. Observation huts revealed no birds, just an endless stretch of reeds rooted in cracked mud.
And the iberianature forum is thundering. Here’s Clive on the topic “This will certainly be the first national park in Spain to be declassified due to a complete failure on the part of government, local authorities and local people…. And what next… Do we see Doñana go the same way in 10 years? What did they do with all the money…. The whole situation is a bad joke…. And what next? Once de classified it will be a fine place for a casino city maybe? Golf courses…. have to kick start the economy you know….”
See also: Environmental groups slate Las Tablas de Daimiel and Los Humedales de La Mancha
The rainfall records for Spain keep tumbling. According to the latest provisional figures 
I’ve just come across 
Three Iberian lynxes of the captive breeding programme have died in recent weeks from a renal disease. Lynxes in the wild are thought not to suffer from this disease.