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Short abstract:

The seca disease destroys numerous oaks in the Spanish dehesa as its fungus-like pathogen spreads rapidly in the soils of the overgrazed woodland pastures. Meanwhile, holistic management redirects farmers' gaze to the soil, rekindling ethnographic questions of vision, temporality and compensation.

Long abstract:

The emblematic oak trees of the dehesa woodland pastures in southwestern Spain are increasingly falling victim to the ‘seca’. Destroying contiguous patches of dehesa, the disease threatens the livelihoods of farmers and endangers an invaluable anthropogenic ecosystem that is often considered the ‘last barrier against desertification’. Farmers and scientists take a keen interest in understanding causes and finding possible solutions to prevent the seca’s further spread. While its name points to the visible drying out of the trees, it takes its course at the roots of mostly holm and cork oaks. Scientists trace phytophthora cinnamomi as the fatal pathogen: The fungus-like water mould spreads rapidly through the soil and infects the oaks’ roots, causing their rotting and the eventual death of the trees. Biologists and environmental scientists point out that the compacted soils of the dehesa pastures resulting from their overgrazing provide excellent conditions for the cultivation of phytophthora.

Meanwhile, a notable number of farmers on the Iberian Pensinsula have found their own way to combat the seca and secure the future of their dehesa farms: By redirecting their gaze from the animal to the soil, they seek to restore healthy and productive pastures. Holistic management promises to combine the sustainable virtues of the past with the demands of modern working and living standards. Consequently, fences become ‘electric herders’, and what used to be a vast savannah-like landscape has been parcelled into miniature plots. Based on ethnographic research, my contribution rekindles questions of vision, temporality, and compensation in human-soil-relations.