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April 22nd is World Earth Day, which this year we celebrated under unprecedented circumstances with great pressure on public health and society, while the planet is facing an ongoing ecological crisis.
And yet, these days we received good news from Kythera, a remote island along the lifeline ferry route. There, the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature in collaboration with the Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems, are implementing for 2.5 years now an interdisciplinary program for the rehabilitation of the island after the disastrous fires of 2017. One of the program activities, funded by V. Vardinogiannis in memory of Andrew Erselman, is a project for the restoration of the juniper woodland (Phoenician juniper), which is difficult to reproduce following forest-fires.
We were informed a few days ago by the project agronomist, that finally the juniper seeds germinated!
One and a half years ago our volunteers collected 63 kilos of cones (“berries”) from junipers that survived the Kythera wildfires. This was followed by the hard work of extracting the seeds from the cones, a laborious process that involves immersion in water, rubbing, and drying. Afterwards, the seeds are pre-treated in a refrigerator (“wet-cold stratification”) in order to stop their lethargy. Finally, sowing in the nursery is done with specific procedures and conditions according to the Sperm Germination Lab of the Institute.
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GFF was established in 2008 by FEE to offset CO2 emissions from travel. This non-profit fund is managed under the Learning Αbout Forests (LEAF) programme, by its International Director. The fund invests 90% of its income directly into tree planting and other CO2 compensation efforts that are always combined with environmental education activities.
