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We are cutting down thousands of these abandoned eucalyptus trees that are a plague on the fire safety and the ecology of the Iberian Peninsula. And we are turning these abandoned plantations into something more like this. A wilder thriving native woodland that is maximizing its potential as an ecosystem. A forest that retains water better, is building up soil, is full of plant diversity such as wonderful flowers, climbers, and mosses, and of course is home to a varied wildlife population that has all the conditions it needs to thrive. So, in this video today, we are going to get into the nitty-gritty of why we are cutting down so many trees, how we're achieving this without destroying the whole place, how
much of the cost we recovered by selling the wood, and taking a look at an amazing 28-year-old project that did exactly what we want to do here and saw incredible results. and also how this project, this intervention here has led us down a path to something much bigger. The creation of our fourth rewalding hub, the Wilder Mirror, complete with its own team full of ambition, a variety of projects, and also our brand new rewing reserve. So, we have a few years of developments to cover here. But before we get to all of that, I think it is important to understand what is going wrong here with all these eucalyptus. And for that, I'm joining Thisa, one of our ecologists, who wanted to take me on
what might be the most depressive forest tour I've ever been on. So, this is not a forest. Let's establish that right now. The way the conventional tiliculture slashintensive tiliculture plants eucalyptus in Portugal is by not allowing any of the native uh biodiversity flora everything to exist in the land where we have eucalyptus which is massive for the scale of Portugal. So we have um first how they start the eucalyptus plantations. They terrace they do crazy earthworks on slopes even in Portugal we have a very slopey country and they will make these terraces which really heavy machinery that completely destroy rip apart the soil. Then yeah of course they plant um eucalyptus only uh and nowadays they are even using fertilizer for trees. Um
so this is kind of intensive agriculture just with lenin plants. The eucalyptus problem in the Iberian peninsula runs deep and is the source of much debate which I don't have time to cover today. So I'll summarize the whole situation by highlighting five very obvious problems. First we have the extent of this coverage with it being the dominant forest type in the country now which based on some rough data I looked at makes Portugal probably the world leader in pulp production per square kilometer that is derived from non-native species. Then we have the aggressive use of the soil that tiza was referring to and that is incredibly shortsighted but also the fact that these eucalyptus don't really form proper soil themselves. Eucalyptus
litter with pieces of bark and so on is only degrading mechanically because we are not in the area where the eucalyptus and natural. This means that here are no microorganisms uh destroying the litter and forming earth in this areas of the n natural vegetation. Here's a sequence of succession from the rock growross stand until the or forest. We have for all these litter microorganisms which are transforming this into earth. So an autoctonous forest is always a stand where we have living beings like trees which are forming soil because 50% of the value of a forest is a soil. With this lack of soil creation and the aggressive soil erosion comes reduced infiltration of rainwater into the already depleted aquifers. Meaning that
instead it rushes into the streams which reduces stream depth and affects turbidity which in turn impacts species that need clear and cool streams to thrive in our area. This includes species of fish native only to this mirror river system which used to be abundant but are now facing extinction and which we are hoping to help with our various projects. And then we have the fires such as the ones raging across Portugal and Spain this summer. They have real consequences. Loss of forests, loss of homes, livelihoods, and even deaths. We witnessed the destruction firsthand the year we started Mossier Earth when we planted trees in the ashes after a summer of wildfires that killed more than 100 people. It's serious
stuff. Eucalyptus forests contribute to this problem in a variety of ways, including their large vertical and horizontal continuum of biomass that is drier than in the native forests. And as mentioned by Udo, the leaf litter doesn't decompose, leading to really complicated ground fires. Then we have the highly combustible oils from the trees themselves that make them burn a bit faster and the large barks that fly off and spread the fires far and wide, much faster than any native forest ever could. These places are a standing matchbox. And then of course we have the fact that no species here ever evolved to live in such a forest. Meaning that these places are severely deficient in
biodiversity. And this next example really makes that clear. Meet Claudia and Udo, two botonists that Matt and Thiago met a few years ago while looking for rewalding project opportunities in the Mirror region. And around two decades ago, they did something really interesting with a plot of abandoned eucalyptus. This is how it looked then. And this is how it looks now. What used to be a lifeless patch of eucalyptus with only 32 recorded species of plant is now a diverse forest slowly maturing towards a proper cork forest typical of this region and already home to more than 320 species of plants. I mean you can't make this stuff up. This is the wonderful and unique orchids and the small flowering
plants. It is the euphorias, the mosses and the lychans, the strawberry trees and the tree heather and of course some lovely edible fungi. It's nature and all its amazing expressions to see the results so quickly was absolutely amazing for us because we were counting yes that the nature will help us to develop all the vegetation on the plot but that it is so quickly recovering. That was really for us a big surprise. I must say it was really cool to see this place so well recovered and so diverse. But the key thing for us is that this botanical transformation was really carefully documented by two people who know their stuff when it comes to plants, allowing us to
formulate a solid hypothesis on how to fix large areas affected by this problem of old and unproductive abandoned eucalyptus plantations. Because all they did was dig up the eucalyptus while minimizing the damage to any native species and then make sure that they didn't come back. Nature did the rest of the work. So based on this and their knowledge of the problem, Matt asked Dudo for some advice on where to start looking for a potential project. He then sent me some maps and the first map that I opened, I started looking. I zoomed in and right slap bang in the middle of that map was my house. So I thought, "Wow, this is where I've got to start." And right over the hill behind
his house, Matt Met Sandro, who owns most of this land here along the Mirror River, which we believe has the potential to become an important wildlife corridor in what is a rather unprotected global biodiversity hotspot. And when we met Sandra, right away we knew we had found the ideal first partner for such a project. Almost everywhere I've ever ridden horses since childhood, civilization has always encroached upon us and everything has gotten more paved. The roads have been paved. The trails have been destroyed. And there was everywhere I went riding, there was always less and less space to go riding in. And we were more and more limited. And when I found this land and I knew I could protect it, I thought this piece I'm going to keep intact.
There's no one is going to cement anything here or pave any of these trails or, you know, encroach on this nature in any way. So, it's safe. Sandra runs a ranch here, home to many happy horses. And I think we couldn't have been more lucky because she needed no convincing whatsoever to let us help her rew wild her land. And it turned out that the land itself was also a rather unique place where remnants of the diverse native forest are mixed with an abandoned eucalyptus plantation that limits its ecological potential, making it the ideal place for intervention. So before we get into the actual project, I
just wanted to give you a quick apology for the lack of videos on this main Mossyear YouTube channel. Of course, we've had uh pretty much weekly videos on the Mossyear Fieldnotes channel, but on here, you've only gotten four stories from me in the last eight or nine months. And of course, I got a good excuse. Uh my dad died in April. And uh my son, this little guy here, he was born in July. And um in the 100 days or so between these two big life events, I filmed many updates for you. But uh yeah, since he was born, I've just been trying to enjoy that for a bit and you know, really focus on him and on Julia as well. But um I've started to script and to write, including this story that you are
watching right now. And you can expect many more updates coming your way the rest of the year. And um yeah, this all has had a bit of a knock-on effect. Uh fewer videos, fewer members, less budget for rewalding. So our budget is a bit tighter than we'd like. So, if you're ever looking for rather opportune timing to become a Mossier member, if you've been on the fence for a while, I would say this is a pretty good moment. So, if you are considering it, then please become a member at mossi.ear. As usual, your money will go towards supporting all kinds of amazing reing projects that bring nature back to our landscape and all its, you know, wonderful variety of shapes, forms across all kinds of amazing ecosystems.
But now, let's get back to uh cutting trees to save a forest. So, after getting everything in order, it was time to get the paperwork done. Yes. Thank you, Sandra. Appreciate it. Cool. Yeah. The land behind us. Down with it. Down with the eucalyptus. And then we were ready to get cracking, which at the beginning of any project always involves collecting lots of data. Starting of course with getting a good map, something that we generally do using our drone, which in this location can get tricky because of how steep the hills are here. So these yellow bits are the higher areas and the blue is the
lower section near the river. And what we did last night after a lot of uh troubleshooting was that we planned a mission that actually follows this elevation profile. You can see the drone right there. It's following this line. And if you look at it from the side, you'll see that these lines actually follow the elevation profile. By stitching hundreds of these photos together, we created a detailed orthopoto mosaic of the land that will be quite useful in tracking long-term changes. Then to mix this with some data on the species diversity, we contracted Udo and Claudia to go and survey the land. Maybe the biggest particularity of the place is that we have in only 40 hectares five different types of native
forest on one spot. There are two different types of native forests along the river. Uh so it's a gallery uh forest uh on one hand with elders and on the other hand with ashes. So where it is closer to the river, we have the elder forest and then the ash forest a bit more up. Um on the slopes we have on the humid uh areas or on the pedum uh the or oak stands with the different types of uh of oaks and on the upper areas on the slope in direction of the ridge we have the cork oak stands. And then we have a third expression with the uh olive cork oak forest uh the wild olive cork oak forest sorry um uh on the most sunny sides uh where the slope is south facing. It is fascinating to see
just how many interesting plants you can find here in just a few hours. But then there are also the mammals and the birds quietly taking advantage of this place hidden away from our prying gaze. We found foxes, badgers, boar, hairs, and beach martins, as well as song thrushers and woodcocks. And in the river, even the occasional otter or terrapin. But also, what became clear in these surveys is that the abandoned eucalyptus are limiting the native forest here through shade and direct competition for water and nutrients. In terms of timings, we agreed to work with Sandra at the end of 2023. In early 2024, we hired Thrisa to manage the Wilder Mirror Rewalding hub as a whole, as well as Flora to focus on
aquatic invasives and the marine side of things. Then in the spring, we signed the contract with Sandra, and the first cutting tests were done with a specialist contractor called Pranativa in September. By December, we had also collected a lot of seed from the land and started a native plant nursery in collaboration with the municipality. Then at the start of 2025, we hired Jon to focus on the fauna and the monitoring technologies as well as Francisu who is focusing on the flora side of things, the GIS systems and running the plant nursery with the municipality. And that was our team set up for this rewing hub. So it was finally time to kick things off for this project. We divided the
project area in these segments here and decided that the best would be for Pranitiva to start with a complex arborism work in the riparian gallery. This is the most logical place to start because a healthier riparian gallery will mean more shade and a cooler and more humid microclimate. This will allow the forest to retain more water and provide the best refuge for animals in the summer, which also helps with seed dispersion. Also, the species here such as the alder and the ash are deciduous and faster growing, which means they build soil much faster compared with the corkco, which is evergreen. Now, these
areas here are quite sensitive. So, to minimize the damage here, Jack and his team from Pratitiva have to do some acrobatic feats in order to cut the eucalyptus in smaller segments. Doing this and controlling the fall of these segments will minimize the impact on the growing trees and the understory, but it is no easy feat. Basically, we climb the tallest tree and use that as our anchor point. And then from there, we can swing across and do the other trees around it and take them down piece by piece or attach a tag line and pull them from a higher point. And then when all the smaller trees or surrounding trees are done, then we can climb back up and take the anchor out like Jake's going to do now on this one.
And that's the tricky trickiest bit cuz of course you're not anchored. Yeah, this is the tricky bit where you have to go up, take the cambium saver, which is the two rings that our ropes go through. Take that off and then move his anchor down as he comes down and then cut the tree at the same time. And bit by bit over the course of a few months in the spring, the results started to accumulate. The wood gets cut and then pulled up to a small road using a forest winch. Then it gets stacked onto the forer and driven across to another site where a truck will pick it up. So that is what progress looks like. And I must say that, you know, I would usually never look at a huge pile of logs of cut trees and feel like it's a
good thing. But here seeing all of these uh eucalyptus removed from that beautiful native forest just feels really great and it's really starting to add up. During this period Jack and his team also help train our team of Jan Tza and Francisku who will eventually oversee seasonal workers in the cutting of the easier sections of this project in the coming years. But the work doesn't stop after the cutting because the eucalyptus is a stubborn tree. It cpposes back with vigor, ready to start all over again. And this is something we have to fight, of course. So, we are going to test four different methods. One is the most simple one, consistent cutting. So, we're going to
cut the resp sprouting at different time intervals, and we're going to try it both by hand and with an axe to deal with the buds. Second one should be tarping. It's about covering the stump with an opaque material so light doesn't come in and it stops respouting. A third one we're considering is fungi inoculation on the stumps which are still alive. The fungi we're not expecting that it kills the stump right away but should help drain the energy and then we associate with cutting. And the last one we are thinking of could be herbicide application. If it's very precise, it can be the case for it. But we are still
studying formulas that uh could make sense. Two other ideas we have are to use a chainsaw debarking attachment or a stump grinder, but please add any additional ideas in a comment. And at the end of the cutting season, we collected and sold 154 cubic tons of wood taken away in a couple of truckloads. And to achieve this, in total, this project has cost us €97,261.61. And that includes all the one-time expenses associated with it being a pilot project, as well as some equipment and training, which we will be able to use in future projects. So, it isn't all just for the cutting, but it doesn't include the salaries for our team here or the time that Matt has spent setting up these projects in this region because
that is spread over a lot of projects. And how much did we get for that? You are wondering now. Well, we got €9,61 to which we still have to deduct €2,772 for transport. So yeah, it is truly only possible to make a meager profit from eucalyptus if you treat it like an intensive crop and treat the landscape, the soil, and the biodiversity like a disposable industrial component. So this project really was the start of something much bigger for us. Um this team that we have set up is working across a wide variety of ecosystems in this large landscape level project that we've launched and we've also bought another property. We've uh we found this really interesting opportunity to buy a cattle ranch and uh yeah convert it into
a rewalding reserve and that will be the story of uh yeah the next update for the Wilder Mirror hub. So in a few weeks you can expect a video about tree planting in Iceland and after that we'll get back to the mirror to talk about this uh yeah these projects that we're setting up and this rewalding reserve. But as usual, the thing that supports our work that makes everything possible are our Mossy Earth members, our membership base. And uh yeah, if you uh would like to become a part of that, then please consider becoming a member at mossy.ear. And if you're already a member and you'd like to support this project further, we are looking to gather some additional funds for our field team here. So, you
can go into your account in the fund extra and uh yeah, you should be able to make some contributions to our field team. Until next time, cheers.
