Alarm, sadness, frustration. This is what caused the “devastation” of kilometers of riparian forest of the Alberche River, downstream of the Cazalegas reservoir, in Toledo. “It is one of the most destructive projects ever carried out in the region in the 46 years that we have been operating,” explains José Luis de la Cruz Alemán, spokesperson for the naturalist association Ardeidas, of Talavera de la Reina.
They prepared a report to show their “strong protest” over the “very serious and devastating situation” that occurred on the banks of the Alberche River and which, according to their complaint, continues in October. It was in 2023 that we began to observe the first movements of logging in the riparian forest. “We raised the alarm and caused some trouble,” de la Cruz Alemán remembers, until the Tajo Hydrographic Confederation (CHT) contacted them. “They told us that they had launched a bank recovery plan,” he says.
But it didn’t stop there. The “destruction” of the grove, which previously crowned the banks of the Alberche River, continued in July and August of this year. “When everyone is on vacation,” Alemán says. On August 24 of this year, they published a report in which they claim that all native vegetation has been “eliminated” from the “fragile ecosystem”, in actions that “contradict national and European laws that protect our environment” . On that date, they point out, 1.5 kilometers of bank had been intervened. But now it’s “much more.”
“The bottom line is that they decided to eliminate a forest that was not home to invasive species, but was home to native species like poplars, elms or tamarisks, which held the edges of the ground. And what they did was create a protective effect. Even if the river overflows, if there is vegetation on its banks, the consequences will be minor, not like what is happening here now,” describes Alemán.
The images, he laments, are “devastating”. They posted videos of what the forest used to be and what remains of it today. What was once a grove of intensely green trees is now a river with dry banks.
The report prepared by the association was sent to the Tajo Hydrographic Confederation, to request explanations as the competent body in the management of the Alberche river, but also to the Mediator, in Seprona, as indicated by the association, and has also been subject to European requests. “This project goes against all nature protection laws in Spain and the European Union. Against the Birds Directive, against the Water Framework Directive, against the European Green Deal, the 2030 Agenda… It’s incredible,” underlines Ardeidas.
The Tajo Hydrographic Confederation, after questions from elDiarioclm.es, states that it has requested “relevant” information from “relevant” technical units to respond to requests for information made by environmental groups, including Ardeidas. “Maybe they will be sent to them in the next few days.”
An “attack on biodiversity”
“Riverside forests are the most sensitive on the planet. When a bank is deforested, as in this case, century-old trees, mature trees, are eliminated, which can influence the effects of possible flooding. If one of the DANAs that we currently have enters, it removes the banks of the river, the agricultural lands, it can enter the urbanizations… But the main thing is that a riparian forest is destroyed”, describes the Cruz Alemán. An “attack on biodiversity”, in short, which will also affect migratory birds during their passage, or local residents who seek refuge for their young in these groves. “This is an ecological attack,” they conclude from Ardeidas.
Professor Máximo Florín, ecologist and professor at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, says he does not understand whether the actions carried out in the area were the result of “ignorance or bad faith”. “Longitudinal connectivity is ecological and refers to riparian plant communities and everything that accompanies different parts of the river. What this work proposes, what it will do, is destroy all of these communities. There will be no longitudinal connectivity,” he explains.
Furthermore, Florín recognizes that the work goes against the Water Framework Directive, the European regulation on water management. “Since it was enacted, what it has been saying is that we need to improve the condition of water bodies. But what they are going to do with this is make things worse,” emphasizes the expert. “What is being done is providing [el río] of a more artificial profile. It’s not a pipeline in itself,” he adds.
And the consequences that this type of measures can have, he emphasizes, range from “the reduction of the capacity of the river itself”, which ceases to be able to carry away sediments as it should and they accumulate . “What can’t be is for you to come and say: I’m doing a job here and I’m going to take everything with me,” warns the expert.
“In sin we have penance, because many of the water quality problems we currently experience could be alleviated through the self-purifying capacity of rivers if their banks were well preserved, with their floodplain, their secondary channels operational. This would greatly improve water quality,” explains Florín. The consequences of this type of action will also be seen downstream, he concludes.
The problem comes from the forests
What is happening to the vegetation on the banks of the Alberche River is not a unique case in the province. That same summer, the ARBA association in the capital Toledo reported that a natural restoration of more than 400 plants had been “wiped out” in an area very close to the Tagus River in the tolerant capital. Due to a “terrible work of clearing with shame criteria”, the plants of native species, which were planted under an agreement with the municipality itself and the University of Castilla-La Mancha, were been destroyed.
In Valdepeñas, Ecologistas en Acción also denounced in mid-September the loss of poplars and groves in the city of Ciudad Real, “due to the drop in the water table level due to the uncontrolled withdrawal of water for crops intensive woody species. “Poplars and poplars can no longer survive in these conditions and we unfortunately have to replace the dead specimens with more resilient species,” they lamented in a press release.
The regional spokesperson for Ecologists in Action, Jesús Garrido, explains that the problem comes from forests and their conservation. “A tree needs biodiversity around it to be considered a forest,” he emphasizes. “Forests are the way to stop climate change and make cities sustainable. Without them, we will have no drinking water or energy. The temperature will increase,” reflects the ecologist.
“Administrations must be very aware of the fact that biodiversity involves the planting of trees and shrubs as well as the conservation and maintenance of forests, especially the most mature ones,” emphasizes Garrido. “It’s an interesting circular economy,” he concludes.
