I thought this documentary by Escarabajo Verde about the booming truffle industry in Sarrión, Teruel was fascinating.

Truffles have had a positive effect on the local environment as 3000 hectares of holm oak have been planted in recent years, under which the truffles grow. Government subsidies  have aided the oak reforestation and truffle cultivation in unproductive hilly areas since 1987. There are now some 4,500 ha of truffle orchards in the surrounding county and 530 members in the local truffle association. The truffles, which are harvested using trained dogs, typically fetch local cultivators average prices of 5oo euros/kg, although retail prices of high-quality specimens may reach twice this amount. Sarrión has achieved the mutual goals of biodiversity conservation and improving the rural economy.

I’ve put together this brief guide to Truffles in Spain: Spain produces around 35% of world black truffle (Tuber melanosporum – trufa negra) output. Some 10,000 people are involved as harvesters…

Interesting documentary narrating the tragic events of 9th January 1949 when a dam upstream of Lake Sanabria, the largest in lake in Spain, burst. A wall of water swept down the Tera Valley and engulfed the village of Ribadelago. Around 100 people were killed. The Francoist authorities covered up the report on the defective construction of the dam.

• Video uploaded by forestman

More on Sanabria including contemporary news report by Time Magazine (iberianature) “One night last week all was quiet in Ribadelago. In the tavern men were playing cards. At the church Father Plácido Esteban-Gonzalez had just arrived on his motor scooter from the provincial capital of Zamora. An electrician named Rey was working late in his shop. Shortly after midnight the lights in the village flickered out. At the tavern, irritated cardplayers lit candles, went on with their game. Suddenly, a distant, muffled roar was heard..Read

Spanish TV’s documentary flagship Informe Semanal showed this documentary last week about the illegal shooting of wolves in Castilla-León where every year as many as 500-600 wolves are killed by hunters, 90′% of which are shot illegally.

The new wolf hunting management plan in Castilla y León is alarming Spanish conservationists. The price for shooting a wolf in Castilla y León is set at 3000 euros. Meanwhile, many more are killied illegally, some of which because of an increasing interest among illegal hunting rings under the tacit protection of the regional government. In most of Castilla-León, wolves enjoy scant support as they are responsible for some 300,000 euros in sheep deaths. This has become much worse with the removal of carrion because of the BSE crisis. Yet, as I have mentioned here many times before the opportunities of wolf tourism as shown in the Sierra de la Culebra, offers a different way forward.

• Video by Forestman

• See story and video here at El País
• Aran Bear eating roe deer
• Brown bear population in the Pyrenees

Or watch the video full size here

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/

Natural history of Madrid here on Iberianature

From Lynxsitu

Natural history of Madrid here on Iberianature