They were key to the development of other crops that allowed the province to grow, such as sugar beet and tobacco. Now they are a sure value, with guaranteed environmental benefits.

Poplars and innovation were the subject of the opening speech of the academic year at the University of Granada. Professor of Applied Physics at the UGR Antolino Gallego Molina was in charge of proposing “a walk” that began poetically and ended practically.

Rooted in the Vega, they have been part of the landscape of Granada for centuries. Professor Gallego recalled that “the poplar of Granada has been and continues to be one of the most important timber resources of the province”. It was used “extensively” during the period of Al Ándalus. Thus, flake wood was used in the roofs of the two side naves of the Patio de la Guardia of the Alhambra. “The existence of poplar logs in the roofs and ceilings of many Moorish houses in the city of Granada and the Vega region is well known,” recalled Antolino Gallego.

In his speech he emphasized the presence of poplar trees in the Vega between the 18th and 19th centuries. At that time it was riverside vegetation of the Genil river. At that time these plantations had an “environmental value” and also a use, since their wood was used in scaffolding, roofs and decks. In 1883 “the so-called white gold revolution arrived in the Vega of Granada,” the professor said. The cultivation of beet spurred the provincial economy, led to the establishment of the tramway with routes that today are a fantasy and created a bourgeois class in Granada. “In 20 years, 14 sugar factories were established in Granada”. The high demand for construction led to more demand for wood and “massive reforestation with poplars began”. This crop also allowed “the regulation of the Genil River floods”. It was a protective crop that led to what the university professor calls the first Poplar Revolution in Granada.

When sugar beet receded in favor of tobacco, the wood was necessary to build the dryers of the Vega. “The wood from Granada was considered first class wood,” Gallego summarizes.

Tobacco cultivation went into decline around the middle of the 20th century. Poplar wood was only used for the roofs of the drying sheds, while brick and concrete were used for the rest. “Thus the use of poplar as a structural wood was lost”.

A new milestone arrives with the pull of the fruit and vegetable trade. Wood was required for boxes, preferably light and whitish. Italian hybrid clones were introduced in Granada, with the capacity to produce more wood in less time, with a lighter color and less density. This was the second Poplar Revolution in Grenada. “In 1962, Granada was the first Spanish poplar-producing province,” the professor explained in his speech.

The wood from poplar trees was used in boxes for fruit and vegetable products and cellulose. Meanwhile, in other communities, starting in the 1980s, plywood began to be produced. It is used in transportation, caravans and boats and then in construction. It turned to a product with more “added value than packaging”, which requires “higher quality” wood and leads to the third Poplar Revolution in those places where these thicker trunks are produced. Grenada did not reach this one. “An industrial plywood industry was never generated in Granada,” summarizes Gallego.

In 2008, the crisis meant that “many owners needed the money from cutting poplar trees” but did not plant again. Without subsidies, the 12,000 hectares at the beginning of the century went from 12,000 to 4,500 in 2021. Despite this, Professor Gallego wonders if a third revolution is possible, which “could come from the use of poplar as structural wood for construction”.

Advantages, all of them. The professor points out that the lack of exploitation of forest resources such as pine “is synonymous with forest masses that are more vulnerable to fires and pests”. Recovering the poplar trees of the Vega for use in the construction of prefabricated wood-concrete mixes improves acoustic insulation and allows for lighter structures, is less costly and would also have a zero carbon footprint.

The development of this product involves an industrial ecosystem, with sawmills and companies dedicated to beams or prefabricated products. Life Madera para el Futuro is working along these lines, with a demonstration project, the Edificio Impulso Verde, which is being built in Lugo.

In addition to being industrial, poplar allows other types of advances. Thus, “one hectare of poplars can provide enough oxygen for the lives of 142 people”. The poplar groves of La Vega, adds Gallego, generate oxygen for the people who live in the Belt.

In addition to acting as “carbon farms”, they are a green filter for nitrates, they buffer rising temperatures and allow life to be maintained in the poplar groves. In them, up to 71 species of birds have been found, of which 68 are probably reproductive, concludes the professor about the possibilities of cultivating this tree.