|Pedunculate oak(Quercus robur) in Etxarri Aranaz (Sakana,Navarra)|
What fewer people know is that until the nineteenth century , much of the south sides of the mountains , were mainly groves of pedunculate oak (Quercus humilis), and in acid soils of Aezkoa valley,sessile oak (Quercus petraea ), and often hybrids of both species.
Nearby from Orreaga / Roncesvalles , we have some specimens of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur ) more adaptated to oceanic climate .
Why were substituted for the beech ?
The economic value of oak has always been higher than the beech . With oak timber, is posible to do all the things that we can do with the beech , but for its high strength and durability, is used for the construction of wooden structures too, while with the beech , as the Spanish proverb say : " Use beech when to dont have another thing" y is usually used as a cheap alternative , and never for structures , at least traditionally .
Beech was used to make wood tiles , called in these valleys , in basque" oholak ", but when they could , oak was used, as the old roof of the old church of Orbaizeta, until it was replaced by zinc tiles .
Oaks growth slower than beeches , and if we also add that oaks have been cut whitout the minimum conditions for their good regeneration , we have that pioneer species, as the pine(Pinus sylvestris), or the beech in our area, have replaced the old inhabitants.
|Centennial oak in Irati forest( Mendilatz mountain, Aezkoa valley)|
|Quercus petraea inTxangoa(west side of Irati)|
Today is a magnificent beech , with a few oak trees on its southern slope .
The residents to the Aezkoa valley had forbidden for the Spanish crown cut wood from their own forests , due to a document signed between the Aezkoa valley and theSpanish crown , which in the late eighteenth century yielded the forests to produce coal for the owens of the munitions factory .
The Aezkoan people , who did not understand spanish ,because their language was basque, apparently they trusted in a priest and a teacher to sign the document , clearly better to the crown, and ruinous to Their.
Have been also used in the Irati forest the beeches to make oars to the navy. Until the twentieth century was a oars workshop inOtsagabia (Salazar/Zaraitzu valley) , and white firs were used for masts of ships, due to his great righteousness .
|White firs(Abies alba) in Irati forest of Salazar Valley|
In the wikipedia we can read that the ship was portugese, but itz was a theory because it seemed the merchandise was from Portugal.
Source: (prof..Nigel Nayling,Archaeologist,University of Wales,Trinity Saint David, School of Archaeology, history and anthropology.Lampeter,Ceredigion, Wales.)
|Is not a coincidence the right angle of the right branch.|
|Members of the "oak commission" for scientific and tourism development of the oaks forests in Navarre|
|Imagine the size of this giant!|
|This really is a great top!|
|Some are hollow and fit several people.|
|Fantastic oak tinder, 5 or 6 years old, depending on the rings.|