Bosque de la Primavera
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Bosque de la Primavera
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| location | Jalisco , Mexico | |
| Geographical location | 20 ° 38 ′ N , 103 ° 34 ′ W | |
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| administration |
 Jalisco
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The forest La Primavera , in German "Der Frühling", also known as Bosque de la Primavera , "Forest of Spring", is a large forest area in the Mexican state of Jalisco . It is located in the west of the city of Guadalajara , in the districts of Zapopan , Tala and Tlajomulco de Zúñiga , and thus represents the "lung" of the urban region of Guadalajara and the surrounding area. In 1934, La Primavera was declared a protected area for the first time. The forest was declared a protected forest area by both the state and the federal state, the last awarding took place in 1980 by President José López Portillo .
Basic data
- IUCN category: 04 (supervised nature reserve / animal protection area)
- Extent: 30,500 ha , with the creation of parking lots, inadequate felling of trees and the latest forest fires only slightly less than 20,000 ha of forest left
- Date of decree: March 6, 1980
- Location: Bosque de la Primavera
- Physical characteristics of the region: New volcanic mountain range
- Protected ecosystem: holm oak and pine forest, bushland
- Diversity: 1,000 different plant species, 135 different bird species
- Type of vegetation: pine forest, pine holm oak forest, holm oak forest; Holm oak and pine forest, tropical deciduous forest, grasses
- Rainfall: 240 million m³ per year
history
The area of the Bosque de la Primavera is located in the center of the state of Jalisco , between the floristic zones Sierra Madre Occidental and Eje Neovolcánico Transversal , which are dated to the Quaternary Age at the latest .
- Geology of the State of Jalisco
The "Spring Mountains" (Sierra de la Primavera) are made of slightly acidic volcanic rock and form part of the neo-volcanic axis, the mountain range of which was formed by the emergence of magma between the Young Pleistocene and Holocene around 20,000 BC.
A first settlement of the area around the Bosque de la Primavera took place from the year 350 AD. However, it was only with the Spanish conquerors from the 16th century that large numbers of people settled in Guadalajara and Tlajomulco, who used the wood of the forest for themselves or for sale.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the manor house Hacienda La Primavera was built on the land, which previously belonged to the Tequila distillery Lancaster Jones , built in 1896 , the purpose of the hacienda was the use of the resin. It was not until 1960 that the name of the hacienda, the surrounding forest and the growing settlement were mentioned more frequently. Today it belongs to the Zapopan district.
In 1934 the area was declared a forest reserve by President Lázaro Cárdenas , an area of approximately 10,000 km² near Guadalajara , which today forms the Bosque La Primavera.
In 1963, under the governor Juan Gil Preciado , the federal forest commission of Jalisco began a project to establish a "La Primavera State Park". The effort was supported by the national government in 1964.
Removal of protection and settlement
On December 26, 1970, after 36 years, the protection of the forest was lifted and the Bosque de la Primavera was rededicated for public and tourist use by the government of the state of Jalisco. This work by then Governor Francisco Medina Ascencio was the first step that opened the door to the fragmentation and settlement of the forest area.
Remarkably, this happened a few days after the previous president, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, resigned from office. His successor Luis Echeverría Álvarez made the change from a protected area to a public area. Echeverria was married to María Esther Zuno Arce, daughter of a prominent local family. This suggests that the official act was a reward for his supporters from Eastern Mexico so that they could use the forest area for their real estate interests.
On October 14, 1972, the Bosque de la Primavera was reappointed an urban area by decree of the Governor of Jalisco Alberto Orozco Romero to complete the circumcision of protection. Settlement rights were immediately granted for the residential areas Pinar de la Venta, El Palomar and Bugambilias.
On August 20, 1973, the order of the state governor of November 3, 1967 was revoked to approve the endowment of the ejidal areas of the village Lic. Adolfo López Mateos and to grant them a 1,103 ha of good quality pastureland. This was illegal because the ejido consisted of fewer people than were necessary to form an ejido .
Today 54% of the area is privately owned, 28% is owned by municipalities and ejidos and only 18% is in public or state hands.
The rescue
On March 6, 1980, as the official act of the then President José López Portillo , the official newspaper of the state published the decree which announced the establishment of a forest and animal protection area with the name «La Primavera (ZPFRFSLP)» for the public interest consists of an area of 30,500 ha in the districts of Tala, El Arenal, Zapopan and Tlajomulco de Zúñiga. Already on September 25, 1980, under the tenure of Governor Flavio Romero de Velasco, the repeal of this state decree was requested in order to designate the zone as a tourist and urban area.
In the same year, the governor acquired 5,290 hectares in the west of the forest through a donation contract, of which the government approved 672 hectares for the wood institute, cellulose and paper of the University of Guadalajara for its nature and forest formation contract of 25 years. In 1992, the Ecology Center of the Bosque La Primavera of the University of Guadalajara was established for the purpose of environmental education.
Geothermal damage by the state energy company CFE
The Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) began to build a geothermal power plant in the 1980s, but it was never completed. The devastation caused in the middle of the forest was huge and to this day this area has not recovered. The earth movements carried out correspond to several opencast mines. You can still see the installed pipes, fences and paths that caused constant erosion and leaching.
In view of the public allegations, the CFE forbade entry to the premises and provided security guards for the entrance area. In response, Governor Guillermo Cosío Vidaurri requested that the project be abandoned and the area reforested. After several months of negotiations, he finally issued an ultimatum.
In an unprecedented act, the governor and the press took a plane tour, where one could clearly see the green areas of the washings from the air. Several citizens and press people opened the CFE fence to gain access to the site. There they discovered that the CFE had partially colored the earth green with acrylic paint instead of reforesting the area. According to himself, Guillermo Cosío Vidaurri was deceived in a ridiculous way, but maybe he was also part of the deception process to calm the public.
In 1989 the project of the geothermal power plant was stopped due to the environmental damage. In 2008, 14 new holes were approved and the project resumed after a 19 year hiatus.
Fire
The Bosque de la Primavera suffers great damage every year due to the lack of fire protection measures, which is the main reason for the decline of the forest. A forest fire in 2005 damaged around 8,000 hectares of forest. It has been classified as an environmental risk for the Guadalajara metropolitan area. Danger level 2 had to be declared because the IMECA (urban air quality index) rose to 370 points, with a normal value between 50 and 100 points. It takes at least 20 years for the forest to recover from this fire.
Activities and facilities of the park
There are many enclosed and non-enclosed thermal springs in the park area. There is also the option of cycling and horse riding tours. Some of the interesting places in the park include:
- Cañón de las Flores: swimming pool / thermal bath, games, terraces, camping area
- Ejido la Primavera: Wooded picnic area, camping area, toilets, parking lots, barbecue areas, public food sales
- CEA Agua Prava: Education and schooling center for nature, ruins of haciendas, Church of Primavera and Church of La Venta del Astillero
- Estancia San Pablo: thermal baths and medicinal baths
- Hotel and Spa Rio Caliente: A hotel with spa in the park area
- Río Caliente: river with thermal water, picnic area and forest
- Balneario la Presa: river with thermal water, picnic area and forest
- El Agua Dulce: picnic area, camping and forest
Another thermal bath is the Balneario Los Volcanes.
geology
La Primavera consists of two different zones: two biogeographical regions, the Nearctic and Neotropical, and the two floristic provinces Sierra Madre Occidental and Sierras meridionales or Eje Volcánico Transversal . It is one of the newest volcanic mountain ranges in Mexico; The average annual rainfall is 240 million cubic meters, through which the Atemajac-Tesistán valleys (including the metropolitan region of Guadalajara ZMG), Toluquilla and Ezatlan-Ahualulco, and indirectly through the Río Ameca the Ameca Valley, are fed with surface and underground water . The protected La Primavera region ensures mild summer and winter in the adjacent areas, and allows the existence of various plant and animal species.
fauna
The studies carried out to date in the protected area show the occurrence of 29 different mammals in 25 genera and 14 families.
Among the recently registered carnivores is the Puma Felis concolor , which is an indicator of the quality of the habitat. Although a puma was last registered in 1974, its presence has been determined in recent years through tracks, excrement and direct observation.
There are also other registered mammals such as the mountain cat Lynx rufus , the white-tailed game Odocoileus virginianus , the coyote Canis latrans and the gray fox Urocyon cinereoargenteus . Another interesting species is Felis yagouaroundi , which is classified as endangered (according to NOM-059 - ECOL-94).
flora
According to the qualification of the oak forest ( Quercus ) there are four different types of vegetation in the forest ; Holm oak pine forest ( Quercus pinus ); Pine forest ( Pinus ) and tropical deciduous forest; there are also three types of herbaceous plant communities ( riparia , rupicola and ruderal ) which are formed in the various types of vegetation mentioned.
The trees are 6 to 15 meters high, their appearance is slightly closed and sometimes open, with a series of communities depending on altitude and decreasing temperature, as can be seen in the following image of the height ranks (msnm)
- 1800 to 1900 Quercus castanea , Q. laeta , Q. obtusata and Pinus oocarpa
- 1900 to 2000 Q. coccolobifolia , Q. viminea , Pinus oocarpa , Clethra rosei and Agarista mexicana
- 2000 to 2225 Q. magnoliifolia , Pinus douglasiana and Prunus-Serotina var. Capuli
- The last of the mentioned formations is found mainly in the hills of San Miguel and Planillas, which are the highest of La Primavera.
The bush elements reach a height of 1 to 3 m and are widespread. The most common are:
Calliandra anomala , Diphysa suberosa , Comarostaphylis glauscescens , Vaccinium stenophyllum and Agave guadalajarana .
Among the herbs are species such as Aristida barbata, Aristida hintoni, Dalea pectinata , and Lostephane heterophylla .
Preservation
The main problems are: fractionation, geothermal pits, exploitation of wood material, clandestine hunting, excessive deforestation, fire, excessive use of pastures, motorbikes being driven on.
Aim of conservation: To ensure the environmental conditions that are necessary for the protection of the significant species, species groups, keeping intact the biosystem and the physical environmental characteristics which are necessary for the reproduction of the species. The controlled harvest / yield can be allowed.
bibliography
- Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas: Programa de manejo del área de protección de la flora y fauna La Primavera (Spanish) . Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, Mexico 2000 ( online [PDF; accessed April 25, 2012]).
Web links
- official website
- Decree of the Bosque Primavera (PDF; 23 kB)
- Protected areas in Jalisco
- Great Exhibition of Guadalajara (Spanish)
- Topic page of the Informador newspaper about the Bosque de la Primavera
Individual evidence
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↑ About the floristic zones:
- National Nature Conservation Commission (2000), p. 11. (Spanish)
- ↑ Geology of the State of Jalisco . Archived from the original on November 20, 2012. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 25, 2012.
- ↑ The relief structures of the state of Jalisco . Archived from the original on September 23, 2003. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved on May 24, 2012 (PDF; 76 kB)
- ↑ Bosque La Primavera. Origen, Historia y Geología . Archived from the original on September 1, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 24, 2012.
- ↑ Official website - Administrative map (Spanish) . 2012. Archived from the original on March 28, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 20, 2013.
- ↑ Informador newspaper report about the geothermal power plant (Spanish). 2008, accessed February 18, 2013 .
- ^ Official website of Bosque la Primavera - Activities section (Spanish). (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on November 11, 2012 ; Retrieved February 13, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Official website of the Bosque la Primavera - Points of Interest section (Spanish) . Archived from the original on May 2, 2012. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 13, 2013.
