Sardinian Village Tries to Save an Ancient Tree Scorched by Fire

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Sardinian Village Tries to Save an Ancient Tree Scorched by Fire
A team of experts, with the help of local residents and authorities, is trying to revive an ancient olive tree in the hilltop village of Cuglieri that was engulfed in a catastrophic wildfire.




To the people of Cuglieri, a small hilltop village on the Italian island of Sardinia, the tree was simply “the Patriarch.”

Over the course of its long life — estimates of its age range from 1,800 to 2,000 years old — the olive tree became a behemoth, with a trunk 11 feet, or 3.4 meters, wide, and an integral part of an ancient landscape in western Sardinia. But after a large area of vegetation and numerous farms and villages in the region were devastated by one of the biggest wildfires in decades, time finally caught up with the Patriarch.

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Now local residents and the authorities are pinning their hopes for the survival of their ancient olive tree on Gianluigi Bacchetta, a professor at the University of Cagliari and the director of its botanical gardens, who is trying to bring the Patriarch back to life.
The ancient olive tree was engulfed in flames, and its giant trunk burned for almost two days.

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“We needed to create an intensive care unit for the tree,” he said in a telephone interview. “It really is a living being that underwent serious trauma,” Professor Bacchetta said. “We are going to do our best and hope that it wakes up from its coma.”

The professor and his team first watered the soil to cool it down and then protected the trunk with jute tarps and the soil with straw. A nearby village gave a water tank for the tree, and a local plumber built an irrigation system that allows the soil to retain crucial
humidity.



https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/22/world/europe/italy-sardinia-fire-tree.html