What's with all the trees?

'What's with all the trees?' has been a frequent question this year.  In January I was in extreme weather conditions in Finland:  -31C temperatures when driving to the Finnish travel fair.  At the same time Sintra had its own extreme weather, a very rare cyclone, as 130-140 kms/hour winds swept through  Sintra and Lisbon area.  In a few hours Sintra lost roughly 2500 trees.  About a month later, heavy winds hit us again and even more trees went down, weakened allready by the previous storm.

3000 trees is alot.  Yet when you look up the mountain, it looks the same.  It is only when you are actually in the mountain, walking through the parks and the paths that the reality hits you. When I returned from Finland I thought I would give it a few weeks for the workers to clean up and then I would walk up again, and did my morning walks in town and on the beach instead.  Three weeks after the storm, after listening to the chainsaws day in and day out, I thought the paths would be opened already, like the parks were, finally, and set up to walk up the Rampa da Pena.  I was wrong.  After stumbling over rubble from walls broken by huge, fallen trees, climbing over tree trunks, ducking under others, I came to a stop.  No way could I pass forward, the mount of trees criss-crossed over the paths.  I just cried.  It was so sad to see.  Old, huge trees, gone like that.

It was not difficult for the wind to knock down all of those trees - we had had twice the normal amount of rainfall this winter and the ground was soaked, so the roots were loser.  Those trees with more superficial roots went down easier than others.  Lots of Acacias and Cedars were lost.  And as the rains continued (in March the rain fall was five times more than the average amount) some of the weakened trees fell with the smallest of winds.

A month later the paths were all open.  The workers work diligently, daily, still a half a year later.  You can still see fallen tree trunks in places, cut and cleaned timber in piles in other places.  There are of course priorities.  First open the obstructed roads, then clear ways in the parks.  Safety and security first.  It will take the whole year to clear up, and another probably to rebuild all the walls broken by the fallen trees.

There have been clean-up days with organized volunteer groups, but most of the works will have to be done by professionals, due to security reasons, as access is not the easiest on the mountain sides. That takes a lot of money, and various fund-raising initiatives are taking place for the clean up and replantation: there are candle holders for sale, made of the fallen Acacia trees (you can buy them at our reception as well). A concert was hosted with all proceeds going to the clean-up operations.

So we are all getting used to the sound of chainsaws mixed with the songs of the birds and the cries of the sheep.  But noone is complaining.  We pray for the safety of the workers and help in fundraising activities to replant.  We want our mountain back.