Noticias en ‘Castilla y León’
April 2nd, 2008
But great news for the Cantabrian mountains and their wildlife;
The Castilla and León law courts have vetoed the project put forward by Tres Provincias S.A. for a ski resort in the San Glorio region of the Cantabrian mountains in the north of Spain, citing climate change as the main reason for its very doubtful economic viability. This makes it the first plan to have been denied on the grounds of climate change. The judgement points out that when, in 2006, the regional government of Castilla and León modified the laws protecting the Natural Park of Fuentes Carrionas and Fuente Cobre-Montaña Palentina (land included in much of the project) to enable the building of a ski resort, no scientific study was included to take into account the effects of climate change.
The threats to the environment and the future of the Cantabrian brown bear made by the project have led to huge opposition from conservationists, who have provided many environmental impact reports. The court also recognises that this project would be incompatible with the survival of many species of flora and fauna of the area, including the bears whose Eastern population would be severely affected.
News from El País
Read all about the subject on Iberianature forum
Cantabrian mountains, Castilla y León, Conservation, Iberianature news, bears, climate change | Tags: Cantabrian brown bear, Fuentes Carrionas, rejected, San Glorio, ski resort|
I’ve just come across Pueblos abandonados, an interesting blog detailing abandoned villages in Spain with hundreds of photos and lots of detailed information. The photo above is from La Vereda, an abandoned village in Guadalajara, with classic examples of the black architecture (arquitectura negra) style.
Castilla y León, Human geography of Spain, Rural Spain | Tags: abandoned village, arquitectura negra, black architecture, Guadalajara|
According to a new report by Gas Natural, la Sierra de la Demanda between Burgos and Soria absorbs more greenhouse gases than any other forest in Spain. La Demanda in one year absorbed 95,244 tons of co2, twice as much as the entire Cordillera Cantabrica. (Alfredo - Forum)
Carbon sequestration, Castilla y León, On Spain, Spanish forests | |
Wil Luiif sent me these great photos wolves in the Sierra de la Culebra he took this October.
Wil organises English-language trips to watch wolves in Zamora, possibly in the future in collaboration with iberianature. More here at Aragonnatuur or send him an email. Don’t be put off by the Dutch, his English is better than mine. More on Iberian wolves
Castilla y León, Sierra de la Culebra, Wolves, photography | |
An autopsy has shown that the bear found dead in Fuentes Carrionas last week died an accidental death from a cranial injury possibly due to a fall. An example, I think, of the danger of jumping to conclusions. (Fapas)
Castilla y León, On Spain, bears | |
Illegal wolf hunting in Castilla-León is responsible for some 300 wolf deaths a year, making it practically impossible for the animal to expand. (Público)
Castilla y León, On Spain, Wolves, hunting | |
Three wolves killed in Valladolid in an illegal hunt (20 minutos). Last year 122 wolves were legally hunted in Castilla y León in the legal hunting season between the end of September and early February. South of the Duero, wolf hunting is currently banned, but the EU has recently given its approval to change the law.
Castilla y León, On Spain, Wolves | |
The Sabinar de Calatanazor is a remarkable forest of Spanish juniper (Juniperus thurifera) in Soria near the village of Calatanazor. Read
Castilla y León, Spanish forests | |
I loved this documentary about Antonio Machado in Soria shown on Escarabajo Verde last Sunday.
Ian Gibson explains how Machado’s visit to Soria was to have a great impact on the poet’s work. The poems he wrote here were published as “Campos de Castilla”, a collection lyricising the beauty of the Castilian countryside. His first work in Soria expressed the poverty and ruggedness of the region, but his writings were to soften when he met, fell in love and married Leonor Izquierdo, daughter of the owners of the boarding house Machado was staying in. Sadly, Leonor soon fell ill and died from tuberculosis, just a few weeks after the publication of Campos de Castilla. Machado was devastated and left Soria, never to return. He moved to Baeza where he wrote a series of poems dealing with the death of Leonor which were added to a new edition of Campos de Castilla published in 1916 , which now saw the Sorian landscape full of melancholy and sadness. The documentary also mentions the articles Machado wrote for the local press expressing an early environmental concern and denouncing the burning of pinewoods for pasture. (Escarabajo Verde, TVE2 from Forestman)
Fields of Soria (extract)
Hills of silver plate,
grey heights, dark red rocks
through which the Duero bends
its crossbow arc
round Soria, shadowed oaks,
stone dry-lands, naked mountains,
white roads and river poplars,
twilights of Soria, warlike and mystical,
today I feel, for you,
in my hearts depths, sadness,
sadness of love! Fields of Soria,
where it seems the stones have dreams,
you go with me! Hills of silver plate,
grey heights, dark red rocks.
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/fields-of-soria/
Castilla y León, Landscape, Spanish poetry, videos | |
The EU is to accept the new wolf management plan of Castilla-Leon when it is approved in January 2007 which will allow wolves to hunted south of the River Duero to protect livestock, breaking a 20-year protection of the species in this area.
Two wolves killed illegally in Valladolid in 2006. (El Pais) The police seem to have enjoyed their display.
According to wolf expert Juan Carlos Blanco, wolves expanded significantly in the 1990s but this expansion, reaching the border of the region of Madrid, has halted. In the last decade the density of wolves in the area of distribution has probably increased. “This is a typical behaviour: first a big territorial expansion and then a brake to this”.
Some 200 wolves are hunted legally every year in Spain, and many more illegally, not just in Castilla-Leon but also in Asturias where 25 wolves were killed between January 2006 and March 2007, by officials after reports of sheep deaths. In contrast, in the Sierra de la Culebra, rich hunters pay up to 18,000 euros to kill a wolf.
Ecologistas en Acción is against the removal of protection. “…there is no justification. Five years ago the Spanish parliament voted to include the wolf in the National Catalogue of threatened species and not only has this not been done, but they now want to extend its hunting. Legal hunting does not replace poaching and the use of poison, it complements it”.
Wolf attacks on livestock have increased but this may not be only be due to its breeding success. The absence of carrion after the EU mad-cow ban on leaving dead livestock in the countryside has had a huge affect on wildlife on Spain and has in all surety driven wolves to attack sheep more frequently. The Junta de Castilla y Leon claim the region’s 1500 wolves kill 2,200 sheep and 220 cows a year. They claim the plan guarantees the conservation of the wolf and reduces its negative effects. The actual contents of the plan are still unclear, but sources talk of some 50 wolves a year.
El Pais
Castilla y León, Livestock, Mammals, Wolves, hunting | |
Henri Cartier-Bresson visited Castile and Aragon for Magnum Photos in 1963. More here. The photos are of landscapes in Segovia, somewhere in Castilla and Aragon near the Soria border (last two). It would be interesting to compare the treeless hills in the two photos of Aragon with today. They will be very probably be forested now.
Aragon, Castilla y León, Human geography of Spain, Spanish landcape, photography | |
The Junta del Castilla y León have confirmed 42 new cases of tularemia (also known as rabbit fever) among the population, in all probability trasmitted directly and indirectly by common voles after the explosion of their population in the region. So far in 2007, a total of 200 people have caught the disease, endemic to the region, though last year there was only one case. El Pais See also Explosion of common vole population in Castilla
Wikipedia notes on tularemia “The disease has a very rapid onset, with headache, fatigue, dizziness, muscle pains, loss of appetite and nausea. Face and eyes redden and become inflamed. Inflammation spreads to the lymph nodes, which enlarge and may suppurate (mimicking bubonic plague). Lymph node involvement is accompanied by a high fever. Death may result”
Note: with antibiotics tularemia is not usually life-threatening though the recovery period takes time.
Castilla y León, Dangerous animals, Spanish rodents, geography of disease | |
Lucy posted this on the forum
“The San Emiliano hostel I stayed in this summer had an interesting book issued by the Diario de Leon: “El Siglo de Leon – todos sus pueblos y sus gentes. Vol. 1” – in fact it’s one of those series of supplements which you can have bound into a book if you collect them all…. The book in general was fascinating - stuffed with old photographs, including some heartbreaking ones of slain bears…..This story concerns an inhabitant of the village Lumajo, 1,360 metres high, in the Somiedo area, in 1860. ”
Here is my quick translation
“Pedro del Potro Riesco was a young man who entered the Army at an early age and by the age of 23 was already a second lieutenant. Returning on leave one day in December, he left his cart in Villaseca and had to walk the last steep 5km to his home. Not long after setting out he realised that there were two wolves following him and when he stopped, they would do the same. He hurried on, but they drew closer and closer, and as he approached the village he he could their tails brush between their legs. Then, just in time, the dogs belonging to Sabugo (a well known lawyer whose family lived in the area) caught the scent of the beasts and set off in pursuit. The young man was able to reach his home, but he was so shocked and scared that he was struck dumb for eight long days. When he finally recovered his speech the following week, he asked his mother for an omelette with eight eggs.
‘It is to give to Sabugo the lawyer’s dogs, for they saved my life.’
For wolf fright, see also Dave mother-in-law’s story from el Bierzo also in León.
Wolves in Somiedo
Asturias, Castilla y León, León, Mammals, Wolves, history | |
I was impressed by the idiosyncrasy and number of the triperias of the city of Leon on my last visit there. Everything you need to make a chorizo. All things pig.
Fotos de Triperias de León Leon Triperias, León Triperia
Castilla y León, León, food | |
The explosion of the population of Common vole (microtus arvalis, topillo campesino), estimated at some 500 million individuals, in Castilla-Leon this year has devastated some 400,000 ha of crops. The origins of the population boom are in this year’s mild winter temperature, the cyclical nature of vole populations, and in the long term in its move into the cereal plains where now “there are few natural predators.” Until 20 years ago, the common vole was only found at medium and high altitude meadows in the Pyrenees, Picos de Europa and the Sistema Central. Juan José Luque from the Universidad de Valladolid notes here «We are not entirely sure why, but we can say that the agricultural changes in the cereal steppes from dry farming to irrigated crops has helped their expansion”
Collecting voles in Valladolid
Experts from the Ministry of Agriculture and environmental groups recommend the use of predators, parasites and natural pathogens, but farmers are up in arms demanding and indeed using toxic chemicals, with all the consequent dangers for humans and wildlife (see below). Similar vole explosions occurred in 1988-89 and 1993-94, which then subsided due to natural causes. More here from Consumer
Photo of a common vole
Read Dave’s post on Castilian voles on the Forum. This is first hand experience on the ground and is frankly more interesting than my above piece” This year has been a very mild year in Castilla and Leon, and so the common or garden field vole, has survived in large numbers, something that occurs fairly often, in a similar way to Lemmings. The area south of Leon is called the Tierras de Campo, and covers the provinces of Palencia, Leon Vallodolid and Zamora, and it is called the breadbasket of Spain for obvious reasons, for this is Cereal country. Voles like the young shoots of Cereal crops, and were posing a significant threat to this years crop, and the farmers were worried, and approached the Junta of Castilla and Leon for a solution to the problem, threatening street protest if no action was taken. Continue reading
Wikipedia notes “The population density of Common Vole, Microtus arvalis varies seasonally and exhibits a considerable long-term fluctuation that shows typically three-year or five-year cycles. Densities can range from 100 individuals per ha (very low level) over 500 individuals per ha (medium level) up to 2000 individuals per ha in some years.
Castilla y León, Farming, Mammals, Spanish rodents | |
26/11/2006 More bears in the Cordillera Cantábrica.
This year’s bear cub census by the Fundación Oso Pardo “seems to indicate that the bear is moving back towards viability in the Cordillera Cantábrica”. Between 24 and 26 bears were born in the western sector and five in the eastern sector, totalling 31, one more than than 30 born last year. Four more bear cubs are to be confirmed, giving a total of 35. At least three cubs were killed by their mothers. There has also been a huge decline in illegal wild boar snares found in the area (189 in 2004, 32 so far this year). Not all good news though, some bears are still being injured by snares and a bear was also found poisoned this year in Somiedo, The quality of the above graphic of cubs raised (1989-2006) is not very clear but you’ll get the idea of the rise. The estimated population is now some 160 individuals. (LNE) More on bears
Asturias, Cantabria, Cantabrian mountains, Castilla y León, Mammals, bears | |
Wolf guide Sergi Garcia, and co-author of the future iberianature book sent me this dramatic photo of young wolves training to hunt a pair of wild boars and their young. They were taken in the Sierra de la Culebra this August. Sergi reckoned the wolves had just eaten as their bellies looked full (perhaps one of the boar young as there were only two). You can see the boar chasing the wolves in defence of young (out of picture), but each time the wolves stopped the boar turned and fled. They may have also been expelling the boars from their territory as these would be a potential competitor for carrion. The game lasted for some 30 minutes. Makes me want to go back soon.
Castilla y León, Mammals, Wolves | |
