Uztaro

Enirio-Aralarreko mendietako basoek ez dute XVIII. mendera arte ustiapen gogorrik jasango. Ordura arte Batasunetako biztanleek behar zuten egurra soilik ateratzen zuten, ia ustiapen industrialik gabe. XVIII. mendean, beheko aldeko hariztiak agortu zirenean, Enirio-Aralarreko pagoak hasi ziren ustiatzen ikatza, itsasontziak edo arma-kajoiak egiteko. Aldi berean, ordura arte “tokian tokiko” abeltzaintza izan zena, erdi trashumantzia bihurtu zen: kostaldeko eta inguruko artaldeak Enirio-Aralar mendietan hasi ziren uda ematen. Aipatutako bi faktoreek –basoaren ustiapenak eta kanpoko artaldeen etorrerak–, batik bat XVIII. mendearen bukaeran eta XIX. mendearen hasieran, Enirio-Aralarreko basoaren atzerakada eragin zuten. XIX eta XX. mendeetan zehar deforestazioa areagotu egin zen, bertako mendiei gaur egun ezagutzen dugun itxura eman arte.

The Enirio-Aralar mountains’ woods didn’t have to withstand hard exploitations until the XVIIIth century. Until that time citizen of the Unions only extracted the wood and timber they needed, without doing almost any industrial exploitation. In the XVIIIth century, when downward oak graves were exhausted in order to make coal, ships and weapon dramers. Simultaneously, what until then had been a local cattle breeding, turned into mid transhumance: the flocks of the coast and its environs started to spend the summer in the Enirio-Aralar mountains. The two mentioned factors —wood exploitations and the arrival of foreign flocks— most of all at the end of the XVIIIth century and at the beginning of the XIXth century, caused the Enirio-Aralar wood’s backward step. During the XIXth and XXth centuries the deforestation increased, giving native mountains the image we know nowadays.