Resisting the Next Fire

May to October are the hot months for nature in Israel. A fire that broke out at Ramat Hanadiv in May 1980 and destroyed one-third of the Nature Park generated far-reaching changes in the management of open landscapes in Israel. Prof. Avi Perevolotsky, a senior ecologist, tells us how the knowledge for preventing the next fire developed.

2010 Mount Carmel forest fire. Photo by Nir Herr.

At the height of the 1980s, when Avi Perevolostky was appointed deputy director of the Society for Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), he began examining the material left by his predecessors and came across a plan he found very interesting: conversion of the natural areas of Ramat Hanadiv into a managed nature park that would preserve and nurture the landscape and cultural heritage assets of the site and be open for public use. As a newly-graduated PhD, he was mainly interested in the fact that the park’s development would be accompanied by ecological research.

The plan was written as a collaboration between SPNI and Ramat Hanadiv, which at that time, maintained meticulous gardens surrounded by about 500 hectares of unfamiliar nature. Besides a nature and landscape survey that was performed here in the early 1980s, including mapping of the wadi vegetation, hardly anyone had visited the site, to the point that the extent and damage caused by the great fire that passed through in 1980 were still unknown.

Avi, who asked to lead the plan on behalf of SPNI, had heard about the fire, which had originated in a chicken coop at the nearby Kibbutz Ma’ayan Tzvi. ‘No-one could tell me exactly what was burnt and where’, he relates, ‘because in general, there was no practice of collecting knowledge about fires in the 1980s. The firefighting services extinguished the fires and left, and that was the end of it, more or less’.

We only see the signs when we search for them

A special committee was established to discuss the significance of establishing the nature park. Besides Avi, its members included the then director of the Rothschild Foundation, Arthur Fried, the directors of Hanadiv Gardens, the director of SPNI, Yoav Sagie, the archaeologist, Yizhar Hirschfeld, the forester, Gabi Schiller, from the Volcani Center, and the landscape architect, Shmulik Bormil.

In order to protect against fires we can establish a fuel-break around the area prone to fire by cutting down and thinning the trees and bringing in a herd of goats to eat all the vegetation.

‘As a first step, and as part of our intention to learn about the place in depth, we decided to map the park to figure out what was burnt and where’, Avi relates. ‘As five years had already passed since the fire, its damage was not visible. We wandered around and everything was green, because the shrubs had already regenerated within a year or two. Only when we stopped next to a shrub and made the effort, we were able to see the signs: the ends of the upper branches were black, and some of the lower branches were burnt. In the end, after going to great efforts to map the entire area, we were able to estimate that about one third of the park had been burnt’.

The mapping was accompanied by aerial photography of the area, both before and after the fire. ‘We calculated that within 25 years the area would return to be exactly how it was before the fire, a prediction that in time turned out to be correct’.

Prof. Avi Perevolotsky

The first national fire

Awareness about fires in open landscapes increased after another fire on Mt. Carmel in September 1989. This time, about 500 hectares were burnt in Kelach Stream, the heart of the hiking area on Mt. Carmel, and for the first time the people of Israel connected to the issue. Avi calls this fire “the first national fire”.

During that same period Avi headed the research department of Ramat Hanadiv as part of his role as a researcher at the Volcani Center. Following the fire, the Mt. Carmel Rehabilitation Committee was set up and he was asked to join it. ‘Initially I refused – what did it have to do with me, since I had no knowledge about fires?’ he relates.

‘But then I went to a conference in France on grazing, where I participated in a tour of the beautiful Provence region, with landscapes closely resembling those of Mt. Carmel. During the tour, I learned that in order to protect against fires we can establish a fuel-break around the area prone to fire by cutting down and thinning the trees and bringing in a herd of goats to eat all the vegetation. While this topic had been extensively studied by the French, our knowledge in Israel in the field of fire prevention and regeneration processes of the natural vegetation was minimal. Keren Kayemet Le’Israel (KKL), for example, wanted to afforest the entire burnt area’. Armed with his new knowledge, Avi returned to Israel and joined the Mt. Carmel Rehabilitation Committee on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Fuel-break in Valencia, Spain. Photo by Avi Perevolotsky

The first fuel-break in Israel

In 1990 the committee formulated a list of recommendations that dealt mainly with vegetation thinning and goat grazing. ‘I gave the recommendations to Hugo, the director of Ramat Hanadiv, in order to support the establishment of a fuel-break in the park. At the same time there were initiatives to establish walking trails through the park. And there was an existing method for fire prevention: casual workers uprooted the weeds, but left them in the field, because it wasn’t possible to gather up large amounts.

‘I said to Hugo, the director of Ramat Hanadiv: it’s not effective, bring in a herd of cattle. And then the first grazing herd belonging to the Altschuler family from Binyamina, which usually grazed on the park’s border, was brought into the park’. Thus, Israel’s first fuel-break was established between Ramat Hanadiv and the southern neighbourhoods of Zikhron Ya’akov.

Since then, three more national fires have occurred, and knowledge about fires continues to develop. The fire in July 1995 around Sha’ar Hagai on Route 1 contributed to our understanding that nature can recover by itself: the nutrients produced by photosynthesis in the leaves of the trees and shrubs are stored in their roots so that when the time comes they’ll be able to make use of them.

Grazing as a tool for creating fuel-breaks and preventing fires, which continues until today, has proven itself.

Ramat Hanadiv goat pen. Photo by Yadid Levy

The vegetation – a dangerous fuel barrel

In December 2010 the great fire on Mt. Carmel occurred, just south of its predecessor, and brought about a national disaster in which 44 people lost their lives. ‘The vegetation burnt in the previous fire had recovered, but in the meantime the unburnt vegetation acted as fuel, and all that was needed was a match to catch alight’, says Avi, ‘the disaster happened on a narrow, winding road that became surrounded by flames, because there were no fuel-breaks to separate it from the flammable vegetation.

The “wick” of the “fuel barrel” is the herbaceous vegetation, which is dry from May until the winter. Up to 1948 village herds grazed extensively in Israel, and this vegetation was eaten by goats. The Arab residents of the villages also cut down many trees for heating.

The country was bare of vegetation and therefore there were no fires. After 1948, the villagers left, the number of herds decreased, and the area became covered by the recovering native woodland and by the trees planted by KKL. ‘We’ve reached a situation where we have too much dangerous vegetation, and we must act accordingly’, says Avi.

The fuel-breaks between Ramat Hanadiv and the southern neighborhoods of Zichron Yaacov. Photo: Albatross

The government starts to get involved

After the 2010 fire the government realised that it must get involved, and following the recommendations of another committee, funding for establishing fuel-breaks was found. This time, the Minister of Finance allocated NIS 50 million to rehabilitate Mt. Carmel. Moreover, KKL established its first fuel-breaks between forests and settlements and introduced grazing to these areas. The Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) dedicated an entire unit for preventing the spread of fires in the country’s north.

In November 2016 a huge wave of fires that brought the country to a state of helplessness in the face of the flames.

1,700 sites in different locations throughout the country, which caused severe damage mainly in Haifa, and an entire week of “battles”, led to the understanding that the intensity and direction of the wind are more important than any of the other factors – the temperature, dryness or source of the fire.

Grazing is expensive, and in order to encourage it we need to set up a mechanism of subsidies that currently does not exist. This is the next challenge.

שגיא שגיב 2_ רעיית בקר תורמת למגוון הנופי והביולוגי ולמניעת שריפות

Grazing has been proven to encourage flowering without any long-term negative impact on the park’s beauty. Photo by Sagi Sagiv

The next challenge: Subsidising grazing

In contrast to the other sites of fire around the country, the fire of 1980 was the last fire at Ramat Hanadiv. Grazing as a tool for creating fuel-breaks and preventing fires, which continues until today, has proven itself.

With time, a herd of goats, reared in the Ramat Hanadiv goat pen, was added to the cattle herd, and subsequently, sheep were also brought in. The grazing is accompanied by ongoing research studies and continually developing knowledge. Thus, for example, we have proven that grazing encourages flowering without any long-term impact on the park’s beauty.

Ramat Hanadiv has thus become a fire-prevention model for different agencies in Israel that deal in open landscape management. Even the settlements themselves have introduced laws for establishing fuel-breaks between houses and open landscapes, by means of grazing.
However, implementation of this issue is not simple. ‘Grazing is expensive’, Avi concludes, ‘and in order to encourage it we need to set up a mechanism of subsidies that currently does not exist. This is the next challenge.’

What should we do when we detect a fire?

If you’re walking around the park and detect smoke or the beginning of a fire, don’t hesitate! Call the hotline of the firefighting and rescue services (102) and/or the ranger on duty at Ramat Hanadiv: 053-6452336.

When reporting it is important to stay focused and provide details of the fire’s location and characteristics – soil type, surface or canopy fire – and don’t forget to provide your details so we can get back to you for further information.

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