The Brown Bear has recovered in the Cantabrian Mountains for the last 30 years

León (EFE) that there was then, has passed to about 370 today.

This was explained by the coordinator of the area of ​​conservation and restoration of ecosystems of the Biodiversity Foundation, Víctor Gutiérrez, during the presentation of the progress of the LIFE Bears with a future project in the Leonese district of Caboalles de Arriba, in the municipality of Villablino.

Gutiérrez has underlined the “imminent need” to recover degraded spaces, “to generate healthy ecosystems and have rich food” to facilitate the conservation of this species.

still endangered

The Brown Bear continues to this day in danger of extinction, although it has managed to abandon the subcategory of critic thanks to the social work of multiple entities during the last thirty years.

However, it continues to be “very vulnerable to global warming”, which leads it to hibernate for less time or not at all, in addition to having seen a reduction in the amount of wild fruits, such as blueberries, on which it feeds.

This LIFE project seeks to “strengthen the recovery” of the plantigrade “incorporating management and adaptation to climate change”, supported in eight areas of the Natura 2000 Network and with the idea of ​​”reconciling human uses with the preservation of Nature”, has added.

Improving the ecosystem, the key to survival

To improve its ecosystem, the president of the Oso Pardo Foundation (FOP) and project coordinator, Guillermo Palomero, has announced the planting of 150,000 fruit trees plus another 25,000 chestnut trees at higher levels, on private or public farms thanks to custody agreements. that prevent “touching the trees in certain years”.

The operation began in October 2020, “we have already planted 36,700 trees” and is scheduled to end in March 2025, with the intention of cultivating fruit trees at more than 900 meters of altitude on some 155 hectares while the chestnut trees, provided by the autonomous government of Asturias, will be deployed in another 55.

“A few years ago we believed that the bear was leaving, that it was disappearing, because there were only two population centers…, it was very threatened, but a lot of social work has been done to recover it,” Palomero certified.

In addition to planting new trees, this initiative seeks to improve the trophic resources of existing forests through forestry, added the technician from the Castilla y León Natural Heritage Foundation (FPNCL), Eduardo Álvarez.

“We will do some work to help the trees receive more light and bear fruit better, eliminating competitors” in three forests in the mountains of Palencia and another three in León, he indicated, in addition to planting in clearings “to be able to monitor how they respond before certain scenarios.

In the town of Palacios del Sil in León, the FOP forestry engineer, María Gómez, explained how “mixed masses were planted, that is, of different fruit varieties that have a better adaptation to climate change, so that the whole is much more resilient.”

The trees planted in this municipality are the cherry, the apple, the mustard, the birch, the mountain ash and the arraclán, the latter “very important because it grows quickly and gives berries that bears like very much.”

Also “chestnut” is important, planted in the vicinity of Páramo del Sil, since its fruit has a high calorific value and helps the brown bear to spend the winter.

Bears with a future is co-financed by the LIFE program of the European Union, coordinated by the FOP, with the presence of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, the FPNCL and the Tierra Pura Foundation, and its agricultural work is carried out by forest crews made up of a population of the area, thus also generating local employment. EFE