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This is bizarre. I feel like I've been transported back into Australia. The smell, it's like being back home. And the crunch, I don't know if you can hear this, this crunch is just like, yeah, it's like we're on an Aussie bush walk. But this isn't in Australia, even if it is full of eucalyptus. A tree predominantly found natively Down Under. We're in Galicia, Spain. So what the hell is this doing here? Short answer: fast, easy cash. The pulp and timber industries love eucalyptus. The tree is now getting planted all over the world. With new forests covering an area the size of the UK. So why's that a problem? Because the science is clear:
this stuff burns like crazy. "If you don't manage the forest, the fire will manage the forest." One tree has changed how the world burns. Now I really need to find out what we can do about it. Eucalyptus is one of the world's fastest growing trees. It's predictable, dependable, and most importantly, highly profitable.
"The management is simple. You plant it and then you have little work to do. Just mainly clearing the undergrowth and then waiting 12, 15, 20 years. Then you harvest it and you begin again the cycle." Juan Ramon Gallastegui Otero is vice president of the Galician Forest Association, which represents tens of thousands of forest owners. Since the 1970s, many Galicians flocked to plant eucalyptus with the promise of future riches. In 2024, it generated €167 million in the region.
"In all Galician families, there is one person with a piece of forest. If you have to plant a new forest and you have to choose, what do you choose? Owners saw, well look, if my neighbour planted eucalyptus and 15 years after he sold them and he got money, so that's it." That drive for profit has been repeated worldwide. The tree is used to produce stuff like paper, clothes and furniture. But there's a huge cost to it as well: Eucalyptus helps fires burn faster, hotter, and further than ever before. So I'm not sure, but this looks to me as if someone's planted
this eucalyptus and then abandoned it. Because it looks completely unmanaged. You can tell by the amount of foliage on the ground and everywhere. And I'm no expert but to me this looks like a tinderbox. "So eucalypts and eucalypt forests are clearly one of the more flammable forests that we have in the world." Tim Curran studies eucalyptus and plant flammability in New Zealand. "Many of the traits that they have lead to promoting a fire." So these leaves smell incredible. It's really distinct. And they're full of oil. So when you scrunch them up you're left with this thin layer, which can be super sticky on your fingers.
And those oils are highly flammable. The eucalyptus bark is also pretty distinctive. It's very thick, it's very fibrous. And when this sets fire, it goes off. "Eucalypts produce burning embers and they're quite famous for doing that. It's usually from their bark. And these burning embers can get carried many kilometers ahead of the fire front on the wind. And that starts new fires, for instance, on buildings." So when countries around the world started planting these trees, they weren't just importing a new species to boost the economy.
They were importing a huge fire hazard. "If you put a eucalypt in a new environment, you're very likely to change what we call fire regimes. So fire regimes are the patterns of fire across the landscape and through time. So in other words, how hot the fire gets; how often you get fires." And it doesn't stop there. Eucalyptus can draw a lot of water from the soil. And in places like the south of India, dense plantations have been linked to low groundwater levels. The next issue: it grows back super quickly after fires. "Eucalypts have expanded beyond the original plantation borders."
Joaquim Sande Silva has studied the invasive qualities of eucalyptus in Portugal, particularly how they act after a fire. "It can grow three times faster than the native plants. So it easily takes over the whole ecosystem." That can create a vicious cycle. Because eucalyptus burns so easily, fires can spread more quickly, creating large empty spaces in the forest: the perfect environment for more Eucalyptus to grow over native species such as oak and chestnut. In Galicia, that cycle is becoming more and more apparent. So we're on our way to a viewpoint right now, which will hopefully give us a better perspective
of just the scale of this issue. Because the more time you spend in Galicia, the more eucalyptus you see. Galicia's relationship with eucalyptus is changing. It was once seen as a golden goose. But as well as laying gold, it's also laying a deadly nest of tinder. The tree now covers almost 30% of all forest here. And from a bird's eye view, that reality becomes clear. Yeah, ok, I'm starting to understand just how big of a problem this is. It's endless. There's eucalyptus everywhere you look. And you can see it more clearly in the foreground here, but every dark patch in the distance that's also eucalyptus.
Honestly, it's mind-blowing. The question now is: how do you even begin to fix this? We're now driving to Froxan, where a community group will be taking down, or clearing, Eucalyptus and planting native trees. They're becoming increasingly concerned about wildfires in the area and you can understand why when you see the terrain.
It's full of eucalyptus and a lot of it looks unmanaged. Forest management is the buzz word in Galicia Joam Evans Pim leads a group of volunteers which is removing eucalyptus, in a bid to promote a more diverse, safer landscape. "So this is an area that was affected by a very large fire in 2006. All the woodlands around the village burnt down, it was mostly pine at the time. And after that it became invaded with eucalyptus. In 2016, there was another one. And really that was a tipping point in this community, we decided we had to do something." The "De-Eucalyptus Brigades" have since grown from 50 to 1,500 volunteers, who operate all over Galicia.
"Today we have people from 8 to 80, really. And it's important to also create spaces where people come and regardless of their skills, their physical shape, their age, they can come and do something. There's people doing all sorts of jobs here today. All are important. It's a way of everybody feeling and understanding and seeing they can do their bit." Eucalyptus in Galicia is a convoluted tale of industry power, politics and ineffective policy. In 1992, the Galician regional government released a Forestry Plan, which projected eucalyptus would reach 250,000 hectares by 2030.
That number has been far exceeded. "It's now around half a million hectares, which is a massive amount of land." And of course this is happening both because of plantations, many of these plantations being illegal. But also because of land abandonment, because of forest fires, because of the invasive nature of the species. So it's a mix of all these that has led to this result." We put these criticisms to the regional government and were able to speak with the director general of forest management Luisa Piñeiro.
The government took 30 years to revise its Forestry Plan. In 2021, it introduced a moratorium, which prohibits new eucalyptus plantations. But illegal plots have still popped up. And eucalyptus numbers have increased again. "I mean, Portugal lived the experience a few years ago, 200 people died, burnt in their cars. We would really hope we don't have to get there for real change in terms of applying existing laws, improving all the laws to be really taken seriously." The Galician government also does not recognise eucalyptus as invasive, despite recommendations from a scientific committee set up by the national government.
After decades of expansion, poor enforcement, and growing fire risk. everyone is playing catch-up to try and rectify the problem. So what I've learned here talking with people on the ground in Galicia is: everyone says the same thing. The only way out of this is through proper land management. But the issue there is, that you need everyone on the same page. And ignoring this problem is no longer an option. In Galicia, community groups are trying to get on the front foot. "We've been eliminating eucalyptus from this whole area and allowing native trees to take that space. So it kind of creates a green fire break in the northeastern side of our community, which is the most exposed to fire. And eventually we're aiming
to have a land which manages itself." It's a simple idea: restore balance to the landscape. But until that happens Galicia stands as a warning to the rest of the world about what can go wrong when planting a foreign species. "There is place for eucalyptus, there is a place for the pulp industry, of course. But it should be very strict in terms of how you do the plantations and what ecosystems you are replacing." Those who depend on eucalyptus are open to new solutions, but they would want government support to replace plantations with native forest.
"So if the country wants one kind of forest full of biodiversity, then give them a subsidy of course. So every hectare you have from this kind of tree doing stuff like that, you get some money." "We would hope that this is kind of the way forward, right? Not just incentivizing profit making and quick cash returns." From talking to people on the ground, you do get a sense that opinions are starting to change. "I think with older generations, there was this kind of sense that eucalyptus equates progress. And that is no longer the case with younger people.
They don't see it. They see it more as a problem and they're willing to make the change." It may be too late to eradicate Eucalyptus completely, but the key now is keeping it in check. Do you have eucalyptus where you live? Let us know in the comments how it's affecting your country. And don't forget to give us a cheeky like and subscribe. Do it.
