By Paul Ames
Lisbon — Before it gained global infamy (click here) as the “road of death,” Estrada National 236-1 was a bucolic drive, winding in a succession of lazy curves through the thickly wooded hills of central Portugal.
The surrounding greenery, however, brought no joy to environmentalists who have long warned that Portugal was courting disaster through decades of planting the eucalyptus trees which line that roadside and cover much of the country....
...“The eucalyptus is more dangerous than other trees,” said João Branco, president of Quercus, an environmental campaign group.
“The leaves and the bark are very flammable, strips of bark hang off the trunks and are carried by the wind, spreading the flames,” Branco, a forestry engineer, added. “Large parts of the center and north of the country are almost completely covered by eucalyptus and it contributes to this type of fire.”...
