forest fires

Academic analysis of the phenomenon of forest fires in Israel suggests that they constitute a complex issue, provoking deep controversy regarding their causes, their effects and the appropriate ways of dealing with them, including the restoration of damaged areas. Aviva Rabinovich's long-term research, in her role as Chief Scientist of the Nature Reserves Authority, has provided significant insights in this regard, while comparing the situation in Israel with other places in the world, particularly in the Mediterranean basin. Contrary to certain perceptions that view fires as a natural and even positive factor, contributing to biodiversity and mineral recycling, Rabinovich's analysis of conditions in Israel indicates devastating results. All fires in Israel are attributed to the human factor, whether as a result of deliberate arson or due to negligence. This approach challenges the acceptance of fires as a fateful event and emphasizes the potential for their prevention through education and increased public awareness of the widespread damage caused to the entire ecosystem, not just to trees. The damage includes damage to the basic infrastructure of the environment, including rock, soil, water resources, and mineral resources. The effects of fire in the country's conditions are particularly severe. It has been observed that species diversity and habitat diversity decrease drastically after a fire, with a few species taking over the area and crowding out other plant species, which leads to harm to animals that depend on these plants for food. The minerals that are apparently released are not recycled efficiently; some are washed away and some evaporate, like the nitrogen lost to the atmosphere. The most serious damage, although less noticeable than the disappearance of trees, is to the rock face and the living layer on it - algae, lichens, and mosses. The disappearance of this crust, as observed in the Wolfson Hill area of ​​Carmel many years after a fire, disrupts the entire food chain, because on this crust live snails and crustaceans that serve as food for rodents, birds and reptiles, which in turn are prey for larger predators. Also, the erosion of the topsoil prevents the growth of many weeds. Comparison with studies from the United States and other regions confirms the conclusion that fires in low-lying areas and Mediterranean climates are mostly man-made. In higher areas of the United States, such as in Sequoia Park, natural fires caused by lightning are recorded, but even there, below a certain altitude, all fires are human-made. In coastal areas such as Acadia and Cape Cod, almost all fires are the result of human activity, since lightning storms are often accompanied by rain that extinguishes the fire. Even in the mountainous rainforests of Guatemala, forest regeneration after human-caused fires is slow and problematic, and is accompanied by severe soil erosion, which demonstrates the difficulty of the system to recover even under conditions of high precipitation. In light of this, doubts arise about the applicability of "controlled fires" or "preventive fires", a technique used in some parts of the United States to reduce the amount of fuel. Observations from Florida, for example, raise concerns that such fire suppression may actually encourage the spread of invasive species. The research and practical approach in Europe and the Mediterranean basin, as expressed at a conference in Greece in 1987, has shifted from "using fire" to focusing on preventing and fighting fires, recognizing the existential danger they pose to Mediterranean ecosystems. The broad consensus is that deliberate arson (for various reasons, including land use change, employment creation, or criminal/pyromaniac activity) and negligence are the main factors that need to be addressed. In Israel, and in the Carmel in particular, this is all the more