Dark Evil Kills Sardinia's Forests: The Region Tries to Move

Sardinian forests are dying. Affected by drought, of course. But the lack of rain is “only” one element that has contributed to the spread of the dark disease that is spreading especially in the eastern sectors, between Sarrabus-Gerrei and Ogliastra, where the landscape is brown. This is where the video was made: the oak tree filmed is dead. A light touch is enough and the branches break.

The problem, it turns out, is not just the lack of water, which has lasted for months – well beyond the dry season – and has not been alleviated by a few sporadic summer storms.
The drama, it must be said, is at the root. Of trees and plants. And it did not begin today. In 2014, a group of scholars from the Department of Agriculture, Section of Plant Pathology and Entomology of the University of Sassari, the Department for Innovation in Biological, Agri-food and Forestry systems of the University of Tuscia, in Viterbo, and the Department of Agri-food Production and Environmental Sciences of the University of Florence, had drawn up a study.

It read: «The increase in average temperatures, a consequence of the climate changes that have occurred in recent years in the Mediterranean environment, may have favored the progressive expansion of the distribution area of Phytophora cinnamomi. Therefore, it is not surprising to have found high damage caused by this agent in a holm oak forest in the natural park of the Island of Caprera, in sites characterized by high mortality of plants, and the risk of its further diffusion in the extensive cork oak forests of Sardinia appears concrete». It was announced and it happened: Phytophora cinnamomi is a mold that attacks the root system. An infestation can lead to disease, death, as well as the reduction of the habitat for animals. An epidemic can inflict irreversible damage to ecosystems. As is happening in Sardinia.

The same study also reported passages bordering on premonition: «In Sardinia in particular, the presence of Phytophthora had never been ascertained in declining oak forests. Only recently, studies carried out following the recrudescence of decay phenomena in some evergreen forests of holm oak and cork oak have demonstrated the direct involvement of Phytophora cinnamomi and numerous other species of Phytophthora. Further findings of the same pathogen have been recorded in declining cork oak forests in northern Sardinia and Lazio».

Tomorrow, with summer now drawing to a close and the damage there for all to see, the meeting of the regional forestry phytosanitary technical table will be held at the Cagliari headquarters of the regional Environment department, "convened to analyze the phenomenon of exceptional desiccation of the holm oak and cork oak forests", as stated in a note, "and any possible actions to be taken to contain it".

(Unioneonlline/E.Fr.)