Devastation Day

This bank was covered, last time I noticed, in eucalyptus trees. They were the result of a Franco-era economic development project  well-intentioned of course, and while I don´t know the details they´re bound to be creating work and money. Eucalyptus were introduced and farmed because of their very quick growth. There is a factory near here, outside Navia, which converts the logs into wood-pulp. The conversion is a noxious and foul-smelling process, and the toxic residues have historically been  dumped in the river, the Río Navia; but the management proudly announced, at a public meeting I attended, that they´d seen the error of their ways and were now dumping it in the sea instead. The product, wood-pulp, is a low-value commodity that is sold on into other economies for conversion into paper: that´s the less toxic, higher value part of the process. I don´t know why that more desirable part of the process is sold on to other economies.
The eucalyptus are unpopular with some groups in northern Spain,  because they are conspicuous, not indigenous, and are said to contain toxins. But large tracts of land are given over to them. This hillside was one such. Visible is the wasteland that results when the cropping takes place. You can see the pile of logs that is being shifted by the truck and you can also see the road the loggers have cut in the hillside. The logging companies have a tendency to do whatever they find convenient without regard to any consequence. They have recently been reined in to an extent by a PSOE mayor in Villaviciosa, but the industry continues in my view, to cry out for more drastic regulation.