Snow, Bureaucracy and a Shortage of Forestry Firms Slow Cleanup of Winter-Storm Damage

The winter storms left about 44,000 tonnes of fallen timber scattered across three Catalan Pyrenean counties, triple the initial estimate. Months later, snow, bureaucracy and a shortage of specialist forestry companies continue to slow the cleanup.

The windstorms struck between March and April, toppling thousands of trees across the slopes of Ripollès, Berguedà and Cerdanya. The work should have been completed between March and June, before the fire season and before the timber dried. Green wood offers more potential uses and weighs more, increasing the revenue from its sale.

Ripollès suffered by far the heaviest damage. Municipal and Generalitat forests there contain 845 affected hectares and 39,000 tonnes of timber awaiting removal. Cerdanya has about 146 affected hectares and 4,700 tonnes, mainly in the mountains of Aransa and Lles. Berguedà has another 125 hectares, where authorities expect to remove 2,070 tonnes.

Progress varies sharply. Some Ripollès forests have lost up to 70% of their fallen trees, while others are only at 20%. In some municipalities, auction procedures and company awards barely began in July. Gerard Vila, technical director of the Ripollès Consortium of Areas of Natural Interest, said measuring the affected area and potential timber had required three or four months of intensive work. The Generalitat also had to reclassify the public assets before auctions could proceed.

Some sites need more than two kilometres of new access roads before contractors can begin. Other areas have been ruled out because extraction would cost more than the operation could earn, or because it would pose excessive risks to workers. The initial concern among some mayors was wildfire. Now the fear is that bark beetles feeding inside the dead trees will multiply and spread into healthy forest.