HA’ARETZ (Tel Aviv, Israel) 03 November 06 'Fire queens' are casualties of the war, too ( Eli Ashkenazi)
Nearly three months have passed since the war in the North ended, but the smell of the fires that raged in the Biria Forest still hangs in the air. When the sun sets, the smell of the wet earth and lingering soot welds together.
"Three days before the war ended, the biggest fire affecting the forest was raging," says Aviram Zuk, head of the Upper Galilee and Golan Heights regions for the Jewish National Fund, frustration evident in his voice. "The biggest and most wicked fire," he adds.
The destruction of trees and other vegetation is clearly visible, but only now is the scope of the damage to small mammals, reptiles, turtles and insects coming to light.
Most of the concern is focused on the orange salamander. For the past few nights, Zuk has been coming to Ein Naboria, at the edge of the Biria Forest, waiting expectantly for the little creatures with the black spots on their backs, but they rarely arrive.
This time of year is the salamanders' breeding season. The courtship and mating take place after the early rains, when the salamanders have enough water to sustain their tadpoles.
The salamanders creep up to Ein Naboria, a spring that was the water source of Naboria, a late First Temple and Second Temple Jewish community. Until nine years ago, the spring was buried under dirt and covered with raspberry bushes. The JNF cleared the site, which is surrounded by water tunnels and arches carved into the rocks. Since then, the spring has become the favorite spot of hikers and an important breeding pool for salamanders.
During this time of year, JNF foresters are accustomed to seeing dozens of salamanders walking toward Ein Naboria at night, their bodies swaying slowly from side to side, and then gathering around it. Unfortunately, however, their numbers are down greatly this year. On Wednesday night, for example, only 20 or so salamanders made their way to the spring.
The fires near Naboria River, like the others that occurred in the North during the war, were started by the Katyusha rockets that were launched into Israel from Lebanon. The largest fire in the Naboria area destroyed about 800 dunams (200 acres). About 2,000 dunams of the 20,000-dunam Naboria Forest were destroyed in all.
"A fire in a place like this, such as a branch of the Naboria River, spreads at an amazing speed above the wadi," Zuk explains. "The heat is tremendous and the salamanders and other small animals had no chance of being saved from it."
Ironically, the orange salamanders are known as "fire queens" because of their bright orange spots.
"Undoubtedly the fire in the Ein Naboria area was a bad one. In some places, the heat reached 700 or 800 degrees Celsius over a very large area," Klil Adar, community and forest coordinator of the JNF for the Western Galilee, said.
The orange salamander is a protected species, and in the region it is in danger of extinction. In Israel, its main enemies are environmental disturbances such as contamination of the soil or water and the destruction of its habitat. Salamanders are active chiefly in winter, during the evening and nighttime, and infrequently in the early morning. During the hot summer, they hide in damp areas, crevices, water wells and deep holes where temperatures are low and humidity is high. The JNF foresters fear that even their chilly hiding places were not enough to protect them from the ferocious heat of last summer's forest fires.
'Fire queens' are casualties of the war, too

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