Altea clean up

LAST Sunday an army of volunteers met up to help clear up much of the devastation following Storm Gloria.

Organised by the department of environment of the Serra Gelada Natural Park and the Red Cross, 60 volunteers turned out, starting at the river Algar before moving on to the beaches of Cap Negret, l’Olla and Campomanes.

In total, 600 kilos of waste was collected and in addition, two boats were also able to access the coves around Morro Toix.

VISITORS to Jávea’s picturesque Granadella currently come across a host of golden flowers carpeting the hillside.

The swathe of yellow makes a beautiful backdrop in the sunshine and is a reminder of the regeneration of the slopes since the disastrous fire of September 2016 when flames swept across the area.

The floral display comes as the evergreen gorse - or ‘aliaga’ in Spanish - colonises former agricultural terraces across the hills. The hardy and fastgrowing shrub, together with young pine trees has been able to take advantage of the catastrophe of the wildfire to proliferate.

September 2016 saw one of the worst fires in living memory. Around 812 hectares of land across Jávea and neighbouring Benitachell were affected; including 588 hectares of the protected Granadella parkland.

Forest managers said the flowering gorse typified the beauty of nature’s regeneration of the area but warned it also revealed an 'impoverishment of biodiversity' because other species were prevented from growing.

It is planned to 'eliminate' the gorse and pine in certain areas to prevent 'chaotic and impregnable' woods; experts also described the two as 'allies' of fire and want to plant species that have a greater resistance to wildfires.