Home

The Jewish National Fund launched an emergency fundraising campaign to help replenish forests in central and northern Israel that were destroyed by wildfires this past week.

Jodi Bodner, director of communications at the JNF, said that more than 500,000 trees to date have been destroyed in the fires -- and that number is still growing.

"The new figures put the total of acreage affected at 1,250 and 500,000 trees burned," Bodner told The Jewish State July 7. She added that it would take 50 years to restore the forests in the worst forest fires in Israel since the 2006 war with Lebanon.

The emergency campaign is aiming to raise $1 million that will go directly toward planting new trees in the destroyed forests. Typically, 3 million trees are planted a year in Israel by the JNF, and Bodner hopes that the additional financial boost will help replenish the forests.

"This is over and above what we traditionally plant," Bodner said. "If you plant 10 trees, plant 11. This is adding on to what we usually do."

The fires mostly took place around the city of Bet Shemesh, a large city in central Israel. Bodner said that police arrested an arsonist in the city, and evidence from the fires in northern Israel points to arson as well. All residents of the agricultural community of Sdot Micha, near Bet Shemesh, were evacuated, and residents in the adjacent towns of Gefen and Tirosh were evacuated as well. There were no injuries, but a handful of firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation.

"The firefighters evacuated the families from the area, for more than just a few hours," Bodner said, adding that each person went to a place of his discretion while firefighters contained the wildfire.

"The firefighters worked to contain the fires; there was natural containment of thorns and barriers," Bodner said.

Bodner explained that repairing the forests is a "complex, long-term project" that will take a very long time to complete. First, planning the rehabilitation process takes time -- how to proceed clearing the forests and replenishing them. Then, it has to be determined what exactly will be rehabilitated in the forests and to what extent the forests will be replenished.

"We are dealing with environmental issues such as which species to plant, whether to plant or wait for natural recuperation processes to occur, and hundreds of other questions," Bodner said.

Bodner also said that the re-planting process includes determining the desired type of forest, which includes factors such as which will encourage new growth.

"The scale progresses from conifer monocultures to mixed plantations that encourage biodiversity," Bodner said. By press time, Israel had not decided what kind of forest to re-plant.

Bodner said that JNF began sending emails to donors through their own database and other partners to inform people about their campaign and encourage those interested to donate.

"We are working through our Web site," Bodner said. "We are doing e-blasts to our donor base, and are doing e-blasts for certain online Jewish newspapers. That's where we're starting from." For more information or to donate, call (888) JNF-0099 or visit www.jnf.org.