A conservationist inspects a seedling planted in Chile's largest botanical garden after a devastating fire © Javier TORRES / AFP.
By AFP - Agence France Presse
Disaster-hit Chilean park sows fire-resistant seeds
Viña del Mar (Chile) (AFP) - After a fire devastated Chile's largest botanical garden, the century-old park has planted thousands of native trees that it hopes will be less likely to catch fire.
Last year's fire - considered the deadliest in Chile's recent history - killed 136 people, razed entire neighborhoods, and destroyed 90 percent of the 400-hectare (990-acre) garden in the coastal town of Vina del Mar.
The park's director, Alejandro Peirano, thinks it's only a matter of time before the fires return.
“One way or another, we're going to have a fire. That's for sure,” he told AFP, standing under one of the trees that survived the flames.
With the authorities predicting another intense wildfire season due to rising temperatures, the park wants to ensure it is best placed to survive.
The park has established a new “battle line” with trees such as the liter, quillay, and colliguay, which are native to Mediterranean forests found in areas with hot, dry summers.
“The idea is to put the species that burn more slowly on the front line of the battle... so that the fires, which will happen, don't advance so quickly,” said Peirano.
Recovery takes root
The summer heat and strong gusts of wind caused the February 2024 fire to quickly reach Vina del Mar, 120 kilometers (75 miles) northwest of Santiago, leaving 16,000 people homeless.
The Vina del Mar National Botanical Garden, designed by French architect Georges Dubois in 1918, had 1,300 species of plants and trees, including native and exotic ferns, mountain cypresses, Chilean palms, and Japanese cherry trees.
Some came from seeds that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.
The park was home to wild animals, including marsupials, gray foxes, and countless birds.
A few weeks ago, on one of the garden's slopes, dozens of volunteers began planting 5,000 native trees watered by an irrigation system.
In two years, it is hoped that the foliage will be large enough to provide shade and encourage the growth of other species around them.
The tree planting is part of the first stage of a plan to revitalize the garden through a public-private partnership.
It is also hoped that the park will be reforested with species capable of adapting to “scarce rainfall and prolonged droughts,” said Benjamin Veliz, a forester at Wildtree, a conservation group involved in the project.
Firebreaks are also being created on the edges of the park, and its ravines are being cleared of dry vegetation and garbage that fuel fires.
Conservationist Benjamin Veliz inspects reforestation work in Chile's largest botanical garden © Javier TORRES / AFP.
Unlike eucalyptus, an exotic species that burns quickly, some native trees can resist or contain the flames for longer, according to research by the Federico Santa Maria Technical University (USM).
Scientific experiments have shown that quillay and litro, for example, are less flammable than eucalyptus and pine, said USM researcher Fabian Guerrero.
When the inferno broke out last February, there was little the firefighters could do to stop it from consuming most of the park in less than an hour.
But nature is slowly recovering: abundant rains in 2024 in central Chile - after more than a decade of drought - have already brought green shoots of recovery in the botanical garden.
The beauty of sclerophyll forests resistant to summer droughts is that “the trees that burn come back,” said Peirano.
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