Prolonged drought weighing heavily on cork oaks

Forestry producers who have any trees left after the devastating wildfires this year are not out of the woods yet. The prolonged drought is affecting cork oaks and may lead to a dismal cork harvest next year. Producers have been telling Lusa that the mortality of cork oaks is already “above normal”, with trees dying “from one moment to the next”, victims of what is termed “hydric stress”.