Two years after Vaia, the perfect storm that wounded our woodlands
29 October 2018 – 29 October 2020
Two years after Vaia, the perfect storm that wounded our woodlands
No ceremonies to remember the second anniversary of Vaia. Covid 19 pandemics takes up every energy, every care, every possibility. But it will not cancel the pain and the emotions caused by that perfect storm that on 29 October 2018 fell on our mountains, on our woods, on our country.
An exceptional event - for the speed of the wind, the quantity of rain, the following damages to the territory and above all to the forests. But an event that imposed on us the urgency of considering the consequences of the climate change under way. During a recent interview Tommaso Anfodillo, professor of Ecology in the Department for Territory, Woodland and Farm systems at the University of Padua, said that “Vaia had been a totally new event for the North-eastern territories and it has to bring us to consider how to manage such phenomenon in the future”. A storm that has been only the first warning and that “made it clear that in a few decades Tempest Vaia could become the rule”. We are compelled to think about such a possibility and to consider it in woodland planning. As Professor says “the future woodland is the one that we are now bringing back to life”.
A very strong emotional impact, for everyone. For us in ITLAS too, since we live and work at the verge of one of the woods most hit by Vaia – the Forest of Cansiglio, the ancient wood for the oars of the Serenissima. Trees that for us all represent the true symbol of Nature. To see them destroyed, crashed on the ground – that provoked a sense of pure desperation. But we decided to act quickly to support our wounded forest and take on a few actions with several goals: to share with the authorities the know-how of our company, to clean quickly the ground from the felled timber, to promote the knowledge of the forest and the damages caused by the storm, as well as the sale of a product made with the beeches in order to support the economy of the Cansiglio native beechwood. We bought all the felled beech timber, paying it more than what was its market’s price and transforming it into an excellence product 100% Made in Italy – Assi del Cansiglio. A three layers flooring that, actually on its tenth birthdays, has become one of the symbols of the rebirth after Vaia.
Yesterday, after two years from the fury of that event and from the tragedy it caused, President of Veneto Luca Zaia, Italy’s Executive Officer for Urgent Interventions, summarized the situation, pointing up that “from the destruction of those days enormous steps forward have been made, thanks to the job of a team of qualified technicians and to the warm heart of the people who, while crying, was ready to take up the shovel to start back again. Results are in numbers – up to now, almost 682 million euros have been assigned and totally used by the Executive Officer, with 931 construction sites finished or on progress for year 2019 and additional 480 construction sites for 2020, for the amount of 240,4 million.”
ITLAS believes we must never forget - we shall go on and witness our commitment as a company towards the protection of the environment, the care for our land, the passion for wood, with the choice of operating with certified boards and forests. With sustainability at the core of our projects.
