64,966 trees have been planted on the Alto Sil area of León to improve the habitat for the brown bear under a climate change scenario. April 2023

The first planting campaign of the  Brown Bear Foundation (FOP) was undertaken in the Alto Sil area of León within the framework of the  LIFE Bears with Future project and finalised on 21 April 2023. The planting was undertaken in three public utility areas in the municipalities of Palacios del Sil and Páramo del Sil (León) and also in private estates in the same municipalities. Land custody agreements guaranteed for 30 years with the owners and corresponding administrative licences are a prerequisite for planting.

Preparatory work on the land started in October 2022, with hole digging using a walking excavator and scrub clearance and in November a second walking excavator was incorporated to speed up the processes. Later, in December 2022, 10 unemployed people from the municipalities where the works were to be undertaken were employed to form two work teams for the planting. Between December and the start of April, a total of 58,936 wild cherry (Prunus avium), alder buckthorn (Frangula alnus), apples (Malus sp.), whitebeam (Sorbus aria), rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) and silver birch (Betula alba) trees were planted in various enrichment patches to increase the trophic resources available for the bear and improve its habitat. Additionally, 6,030 sweet chestnuts (Castanea sativa), some of these grafted with traditional varieties, also in order to augment the availability of food resources for the brown bear under a climate change scenario, were also planted.

Planting has been undertaken in part with seedlings coming from seeds collected by the LIFE project’s technicians in areas with ecological similarity to the planting areas, which were subsequently nursery raised in the Central Forestry Nursery of the Government of Castilla y León . In parallel, the sweet chestnuts were raised in the La Mata Forestry Nursery of the Principality of Asturias.

In addition to improving the habitat for the brown bear and the biodiversity in general, these actions contribute towards increasing the tree cover and environmental quality of the bear areas, increasing the value of ecosystem services that these areas provide, such as carbon capture and conservation of the hydrological resources.

The “Bears with Future” Project, co-financed by the European Union LIFE Project, will be carried out until 2025. It is coordinated by the Brown Bear Foundation in partnership with the Biodiversity Foundation (Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge), and the Natural heritage Foundation of the Castilla y León regional government. The Government of Asturias is co-financer, via the Directorate General for the Environment and Rural Planning, of the Department of Rural Development, Agriculture and Fisheries. Tierra Pura Foundation collaborates technically and co-finances the project.