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The bark is stripped off and used as cork.
Huh, I remember learning at some point that removing bark around the entire perimeter of a tree interrupts water flow and eventually kills the tree. Is that only some trees then? Or was I totally misinformed?
Same! Digging into this wiki says (with source):
Typically, once it reaches 25 years old, its thick bark can be harvested for cork every 9 to 12 years without causing harm to the tree.[4]
The source is a Rainforest Alliance article from 2024: https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/species/cork-oak/
Cork oak is unique in its ability to regenerate its outer bark. After a tree reaches 25 years of age, it can be stripped of its cork once every 9 to 12 years without causing damage to the tree. A single cork oak, which lives up to 200 years, can be harvested over 16 times.
Cool thing I learned: harvested cork oak stores 5x as much carbon as unharvested. Get that cork!
Depends on the tree species, technically the only living part of a tree trunk is a thin layer of material right under the visible bark. If you go around and expose the wood in a circle around the trunk the tree will die, but I guess if you're careful the bark can be harvested without harming the tree.
Disclaimer: I am not an arborist, this is just my recollectio of an explanation I got several years ago.
Brr cold. Get those trees a jacket! 😉
Is this a cork plantation of sorts, and the trees planted for that purpose, or is it just people/businesses taking advantage of the local fauna?
Flora in this case and since it doesn't harm the trees in any way, mostly irrelevant.
Thank you, and I was just curious really, if cork plantations are a thing, in Spain.
They are, and many of them have existed for centuries. Most cork now is probably synthetic, but there are still some places where people harvest cork.
No problem. It often surprises people for some reason, but yeah, since forever and more, wine bottle corks have been made of cork and it's a renewable process. You are just seeing the naked trees, the bark will grow again.
I didn't seem like a plantation. We were hiking a trail and kept coming across them. Sometimes one, sometimes a bunch. I think they're scattered throughout the forest and some people have rights to certain areas.
