Mallorca Rural Experience

Stage 2: The holm oak forest and its ethnological heritage

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On our itienrary through the extensive holm oak forest we will find several remains from the times when the forest was productive: lime kilns, charcoal circular platforms, "colls de tords" or bird hunting with nets, ruins of buildings that supported families who once worked in this place... These elements are part of the traditional Mallorcan forest exploitation, but today they are deprecated. However, some of them have been restored (in their original location) to recreate into detail these peculiar traditions and allow the visitors to know them first hand.

 

A "coll de tord" is the space between the branches of two different trees which is used to locate nets that trap thrush birds when entering and leaving the forest, mainly at dawn and at sunset. During this stage we pass by 2 of them, being able to see the type of camouflage and suitable location.

 

The "rotllos" (circular stone platforms) are the remnant of "sitges" (charcoal generators). Along the path we can contemplate more than 6 of these circular platforms and, in particular, a peculiar double "sitja" which suggests the potential to generate charcoal that this oak forest has. The transformation from wood to charcoal could last from a week to ten days, so while the "cooking" was controlled, a second "sitja" could be prepared. This allowed to overlap working processes where wood production was sufficiently abundant. Next to the double "sitja" lies a small stone building that gave shelter to those who controlled the "sitja" while it burned, as they could not leave it unattended for a moment, both to ensure proper operation and to avoid fire.

 

Parallel to the charcoal production, the farm produced lime using the forest organic and inorganic resources. Several lime kilns where located in the same area and complemented the forest production. The typical Majorcan rock soil is limestone or limestone. Basically consists of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). When this rock is scorched at temperatures up to 1000 ° C, it is dehydrated releasing CO2 in the process, and the resulting calcium oxide, also known as quicklime. This product combined with H2O produces calcium hydroxide, slaked lime or lime Amarada, which, in various forms, powder, paste, etc.. serves different purposes: for whitewashing walls to improve the health and thermal conditions of a building, to make mortars and plasters, to disinfect wells or cisterns, or even to clear of insects cattle and its stables.

 

Note that these two processes are complementary. In "sitges" thick wooden logs were used, with great mass and therefore a greater capacity to generate coal. In contrast, lime kilns used the smallest wood branches and sitcks, since they create a much more lively and brilliant flare (thanks to a greater contact surface with oxygen). While a process is trying to control the amount of oxygen in the burning, so that the wood does not burn, and retain their heat capacity in the form of coal, the other is looking for a lively and exuberant fire that can reach high temperatures capable of dehydrating the stone.

 

This complementarity of uses allowed to perform a zero waste process of forest exploitationt. These were the main benefits:

- prevention of fires, 

- increased productivity and usability of the environment (profits),  

- by-products used for building construction (inside and outside the farm),

- hygiene and energy balance of the forest,

- no need to handle waste because all used materials were transformed into something useful.

 

It was a closed circle that began with stone and wood, fully renewable and abundant elements in our island, and through its various uses and forms allowed a perfect symbiosis between humans and their environment.

 

These activities were not polluting at all. Although it may seem that in the process of making charcoal and lime CO2 emmisions could be released into the atmosphere by combustion processes, if we analyze the entire process, the balance is always negative; that is, most of the carbon dioxide emitted is fixed. When using wood as fuel, it is considered that the net balance does not emit CO2, as during the life of the tree, carbon has been absorved while huge amounts of oxygen have been released into the atmosphere. By contrast, mineral coal (usually from mining processes) and other fossil fuels release carbon that was fixed billions of years ago and has remained dormant underground until now. Controlled felling and pruning of forests, generating ecological fuel known as biomass, is completely sustainable, whenever planned and does not involve an uncontrolled action or interferes negatively on other species lifes. Besides, the lime produced in the traditional way, unlike cement, uses existing CO2 in the atmosphere to harden. In the chemical process, calcium hydroxide combines with CO2 to recreate the CaCO3, ie, the initial limestone that started with the process. This means that throughout its life cycle, lime will steal CO2 from the atmosphere since it breathes and takes many years to fully harden. 

 

As we see, all these processes that once generated very useful synergies for the inhabitants of the land, now have been forgotten by the emergence of new industrial products. Traditional processes have become obsolete and unprofitable. Unfortunately, many of these new products are highly polluting in all kinds of particles and contribute greatly to generate greenhouse gases that cause global warming.