The same view two days after the wildfire in 2022.

The same view, photo taken in 2019, before the fire.

Estrada da Cobra or Snake Road named for obvious reasons, taken in Sept 2023 one year after the fire. The vegetation has begun to recover but the ground cover is still several years away from achieving the density it had before, the bare earth still showing.

The same view just two days after the fire.

The same area before the fire.

A footpath descending into the lower Barris valley two days after the fire.

The same view taken in 2023 one year after the fire, partially recovered but suffering from continued high temperatures and lack of rain.

Again the same view taken before the fire in 2019. This picture was taken in May when the valley was probably at its greenest, after the winter and spring rains of that year.

Some miraculous recoveries; A tree burnt and seemingly dead two days after the fire in 2022.

The same tree one year on, its old trunk and branches still dead but with new growth springing back from its base, its root system having survived. The tree and surrounding vegetation stand on the course of a seasonal stream aiding its regrowth.

An old olive tree pronounced dead by myself a year earlier very much alive today!

The same tree two days after the fire.

An alder tree springing back to life, its branches previously burnt leafless.

The dividing line between the area burnt by the fire and that left unscathed can still be clearly seen however from the opposite hillside, one year after the fire.

A once dense woodland of pine, destroyed by the fire, is felled. Whilst the timber itself can be used and new forest replanted the method by which this is being done brings new questions. Numerous wide tracks have been excavated into the hillside where dense vegetation, largely impenetrable to humans used to be. Access for large machinery to recover the timber is achieved but at what cost? Will these tracks be left to grow back to their former state or will they become new routes for human presence, preventing animals that were there before from returning?

A dead pine tree is felled.

The same hillside in 2021, a year before the fire. These pines were then many decades old. It will take many more for this vista to be recovered. Will the wild boar who laid up for summer shade in this wood return undisturbed?

The remains of more felling a little further on.

The same scene in 2019 before the fire, a mixture of old pines and an abandoned olive plantation on the right.

The same olive plantation now a year after the fire, dead wood removed and the olives showing a strong recovery. Here human agency seems to have brought benefit.

Here perhaps not so. A track excavated into the hillside. Before the fire and for many decades, if not centuries, an old covered path twisted up the hillside here, used by people and animals, and enclosed completely by trees and bushes, sculpted by time into a natural tunnel. The fire burnt the trees and bushes, but did not destroy them, nor the path. Human expediency, to get at the timber on the hill, seems to have done that instead.

And here, running right to left at the bottom of the picture is a stream, though it is difficult to tell, one year after the fire, as access for machinery has flattened its path. Three felled pines, their bark still black from the fire have been placed as a footbridge over the stream which flows year round even in the height of summer. On the far bank of the stream ancient horsetails grow, though they too have been flattened, and before the fire I have seen the stream here populated by freshwater crayfish.

Flora indefatigable?

A wild orchid, photo taken before the fire to show the natural density of grasses and flora in this area. These plants have not been destroyed by the fire, their roots or rhizomes have survived, but it is unclear whether sufficient knowledge of these and other plants and animals informs the choices of those who are making decisions about the areas recovery.

A poster displayed by a local independent group which in English translates as; ‘Building A Forest For All Of Us.’ Some tree planting has been undertaken and more is planned by independent groups and local and national agencies.

The same poster next to another for a local construction company which in turn translates as; ‘Building The Future Today.’ Portugal was for many decades held back in its development by political and economic isolation. An understandable desire for progress is very much at the centre of many Portuguese hearts, the idea of the countryside as a place for human relaxation rather than work still a relative novelty. Climate change in the form of wildfires, high temperatures and drought bring new and added complications to this picture. Will the rebuilt forest survive into maturity given these conditions, and if it is indeed for ‘all of us’, does this include all the plants and animals who wish to live there too? These questions, of course, are not exclusive to Portugal.