The work of environmental recovery among Cantabrian localities of Ramales and Ruesga del Monte de la Sierra. This has been possible thanks to a budget item of 360,000 euros allocated for this purpose.
The Minister of Development, Housing, Territorial Planning and Environment of Cantabria, Roberto Media, visited today the beginning of the works of environmental recovery of Monte de la Sierrabetween the municipalities of Ramales and Ruesga, which affect 45.67 hectares and in which 359,481 euros will be invested through European Funds.
This is the second of the actions included in the five projects that the Ministry of the Environment will carry out in the coming months, before mid-2026, to restore degraded and mining spaces in the Autonomous Community and that affect 198 hectares, with a investment of 12 million euros. «Some work that will allow benefit 7 municipalities and recover 5 emblematic spaces in the region«, he has clarified.
“This is one of the pending issues that we found when we arrived at the Ministry,” said Media, who also stressed his commitment to “the good use of public funds«, since the projects that were available at that time, assigned to these funds, did not meet the Ministry’s requirements to be able to take advantage of this item.
For this reason, he explained, what we did “was reach an agreement with the mayors to be able to take advantage of these funds”, a gesture that he thanked the Corporations of Ruesga and Ramales de la Victoria for their collaboration with the General Directorate of the Environment so that “This project was a reality and the funds were not lost.«.
Environmental recovery of Mount Sierra
In the case of the Ramales and Ruesga action, it is a project of ecological restoration and forest hydrological correction in Monte de la Sierra, whose execution period is 9 months, and which is closely linked to a reforestation of the area with native forest species such as holm oaksbirches or willows in areas with greater humidity and waterlogging.
It will be complemented with the establishment of herbaceous and woody species rapid colonization and matting power by sowing a mixture of grasses and other woody species. The installation of temporary infrastructure to reduce runoff is also planned with the aim of reducing the erosion capacity of the area.
For his part, the mayor of Ramales de la Victoria, César García, has assured that the environmental restoration of this mountain, which has been burned on several occasionsis an opportunity for its regeneration and to stop the amount of water that reaches our rivers due to erosion, sometimes causing floods such as those recorded on several occasions in the Ampuero industrial estate.
An opinion that has been shared by the municipal councilor of Ruesga, Jesús Ramón Ochoa, for whom it is a “very deforested” area due to firesso we thank the Ministry for its “sensitivity” when it came to including this area within this project, and in this way, “we managed to do something to improve the environment«.
Media has recalled the other four projects that are going to be launched in this environmental recovery plan for your departmentwhich have already begun with the environmental recovery of the slope of Mount Suances, with an investment of almost 429,000 euros, and which will be completed with the restoration of the land of the old Reocín mine, in Torrelavega and Cartes (8.7 million euros); the recovery of biodiversity from the Solvay quarry in Cuchía (2.3 million), in the municipality of Miengo; and, finally, the recovery of agricultural land in Monte La Picota, in Piélagos, to which 428,000 euros will be allocated.
The event, in addition to the general director of the Environment, Alberto Quijano, was attended by various members of both municipal Corporations and technicians from the Environment Department of Cantabria.
The action that has been carried out in Monte de la Sierra is part of a set of five projects aimed at restoring degraded and mining spacesin which the Ministry of the Environment will invest more than 12 million euros.