On Monday, the LA Times published an article called Blazes Scorch Israel's Forests, which included a mention of JNF's work.

Omri Bonneh, director of the northern region for the Jewish National Fund, which oversees Israel's forests and employs its own firefighters, said the blazes had damaged stands of pines 50 to 60 years old. He said about 2,000 acres of woodlands had been burned — an amount that would be normally lost to fire over five years.

"It is severe damage," Bonneh said. "It will take a long time to rehabilitate."

The loss is especially painful for the Galilee region, which is edged with woods and hills and coursed by small rivers that make it a magnet for hikers and ecologically minded tourists.

"This region is defined as the green lands of Israel," Bonneh said. "That's why it's important for us to protect the forest and do our best to rehabilitate the forests that are destroyed."

He said officials were already drawing up plans for restoring the forests through planting, if new trees didn't sprout through natural growth.

Today, JTA published an article detailing the damage of the fires as well.

"It's an ecological catastrophe. Animals are dying. Trees are getting burned," said Orit Hadad, an official with the Jewish National Fund in Israel, where it is known as Keren Kayemet L'Yisrael. "Even if every tree is replanted, to bring these forests back to the state they were in will take 50 to 60 years."

That means that most of the survivors of this war will not live to see the landscape return to its prewar state.

Among the hardest-hit areas have been the Naftali forest range near Kiryat Shmona, where more than three-quarters of the forest was obliterated, and the Birya Forest in the Western Galilee, near Safed, where more than 600 acres have burned.

Less is known about how the animals that live in this largely rural area have fared. Firefighters have found the remains of many slow-moving animals, such as snakes and turtles, in burned areas. Larger animals that managed to escape likely will suffer from loss of food sources and a sharp reduction in available grazing lands, experts said.

"We're very aware of this problem of disruption of the food chain, even if there is not much we can do," said Michael Weinberger, a JNF forest supervisor in the Central Galilee and Golan Heights.

[...]

The JNF says it will try to replant as many trees as possible after the fighting is over. Each acre will cost an estimated $5,500 for the first two years to resoil, replant and treat, officials said.

For now, the focus is on putting out the fires.

If you would like help, you can donate to help purchase emergency equipment for fire fighers. You can also donate to Operation Security Blanket as a whole.