THE BIG FIRE
Lots of the rules of Torres del Paine national park are to
protect it from fires. The Lingua trees
that used to cover the forests grow at 1 mm a year and once a mature tree is gone,
it doesn’t grow back. In 2005, a 20 year
old Croatian man started a fire that destroyed forest, in 2006 an Israeli 18 year old started a fire and
faced a fine of $200. In 2011, another
18 year old Israeli man started a fire that accidentally got away from his
campfire, the winds were blowing severely and the fire burned ¾ of the
park! The park is 1,773,600 acres. Everywhere we went for 3 days was burnt
trees. In addition to the trees, many
animal died that were unable to escape the fast moving blaze. The Israeli government voluntarily paid 10
million dollars to Chile and that young man has to come to Patagonia every
summer for the rest of his life to help with the conservation effort and to
spread awareness of the danger of fires.
Israel has also set up a program to educate tourist. Maybe calling the above men is giving them
more credit than they deserve! The laws
for violating the “no campfire” rules have continued to get more severe. Last year 2 South Korean girls, 19 and 20
years old were fined 10,000 USD, kicked out of the country and can’t come back
for 10 years. We drove by several
reforestation projects where Lingua trees have been planted in green cylinders
and as they mature, the trees will be planted throughout the park, but remember
a Lingua tree grows only 1 mm a year!!
Replanting is slow, tedious work
THE BIG FIRE
Lots of the rules of Torres del Paine national park are to
protect it from fires. The Lingua trees
that used to cover the forests grow at 1 mm a year and once a mature tree is gone,
it doesn’t grow back. In 2005, a 20 year
old Croatian man started a fire that destroyed forest, in 2006 an Israeli 18 year old started a fire and
faced a fine of $200. In 2011, another
18 year old Israeli man started a fire that accidentally got away from his
campfire, the winds were blowing severely and the fire burned ¾ of the
park! The park is 1,773,600 acres. Everywhere we went for 3 days was burnt
trees. In addition to the trees, many
animal died that were unable to escape the fast moving blaze. The Israeli government voluntarily paid 10
million dollars to Chile and that young man has to come to Patagonia every
summer for the rest of his life to help with the conservation effort and to
spread awareness of the danger of fires.
Israel has also set up a program to educate tourist. Maybe calling the above men is giving them
more credit than they deserve! The laws
for violating the “no campfire” rules have continued to get more severe. Last year 2 South Korean girls, 19 and 20
years old were fined 10,000 USD, kicked out of the country and can’t come back
for 10 years. We drove by several
reforestation projects where Lingua trees have been planted in green cylinders
and as they mature, the trees will be planted throughout the park, but remember
a Lingua tree grows only 1 mm a year!!
Replanting is slow, tedious work
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