Recuperar bosques no es solo plantar árboles: Lecciones aprendidas luego de 7 años restaurando bosques de Pilgerodendron Uviferum (D. Don) Florin en Chiloé

Abstract

these forests. Our results show that P. uviferum is a stress-tolerant conifer that can tolerate extremely wet conditions, yet suffer from stress when grown in the open, and therefore the recovery of the species after fires is extremely slow. At the landscape level, seventy years after stand replacing fires there are vast areas without seed trees of the species, and their dissemination potential is extremely limited. Therefore, restoration planting to complement existing seed trees may assist natural recovery of P. uviferum in disturbed bog forests and add genetic diversity. In this context, we suggest a mixed passive-active restoration strategy, relying on naturally regenerated parent trees complemented through cluster planting. Furthermore, the multi-scale approach used in our research, that studied the underlying ecological and physiological processes occurring in disturbed and undisturbed sites prior to planning a restoration program, could be adopted for other ecosystems with low resilience and high degradation, where restoration is likely to be extremely expensive and the outcome uncertain.