In a forest of pine and eucalyptus trees in central Portugal, chainsaws and diggers hum away clearing paths blocked by trees uprooted in winter storms, but the threat now is a high risk of summer fires.
A team of forest firefighters, civil protection officers and military personnel are out clearing trunks littering forest tracks that provide vital access routes to tackle blazers.
The forest was planted in the 13th century to provide timber used to build the caravels which saw Portugal’s Age of Discovery seafarers set out to explore and conquer large swathes of the globe.
Fierce winds from Storm Kristin lashed the area in January, causing some 140 million euros of damage.
The storm left behind huge quantities of dead wood in the forest, which easily spark fire on a “massive scale,” explained Vasco Fernandes, a municipal civil protection official.
The municipality, targeting the clearance of some 178 km of forest tracks, is still reeling from the major fires of October 2017.
Nationwide, 12,000 kilometres of forest tracks and roads are to be cleared this year, according to civil protection data.
Between 22 January and 15 February, seven storms, including Kristin, hit Portugal with strong winds and heavy rain causing at least seven deaths and damage of some 5.3 billion euros.
Prime Minister Luis Montenegro has urged “redoubled efforts” in forest clearance operations, while Interior Minister Luis Neves warned of a “very tough” summer fire season.
Despite a tenfold investment in prevention following the fires of 2017 that killed more than 100 people, Portugal saw 270,000 hectares of vegetation destroyed last year, its worst toll of the decade.