Facts speak louder than words: an environmentalist message against the invasion of pine trees through citizen participation in manual removal campaigns

The spread of invasive pines from productive plantations is one of the main environmental problems in Argentine northern Patagonia. This not only threatens biodiversity but also increases the risk of forest fires in natural–urban interface areas. However, the gradual nature of the invasion often leads to its being perceived as a natural process, and therefore, community education is necessary to understand the problem. In 2021, a group of scientific researchers, forest managers and environmentalists from Bariloche founded the Red PINOS partnership to self-organize the local community for participatory governance of this problem. The defined strategy centrally includes carrying out pine removal campaigns with publicly summoned volunteers. So far, we have conducted two campaigns (November 2022 and February 2023) at a pilot site of 7 hectares in a central area of Bariloche, located on the access road to the most important ski center in South America. This area, a multi-specific low forest, is invaded by Pinus sylvestris, P. contorta, P. ponderosa and Pseudotsuga menziesii. Over the two campaigns, 12,965 pine trees, up to 1.5 m tall, were manually removed with the participation of 34 volunteers within two hours each time (an average of 195.5 pine trees per person). These events were used to raise awareness about the issue of invasions through social media (e.g. WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook) and local mass media (newspapers and radio), extending the environmental message to the entire community. Monitoring through transects carried out in March 2024 showed the persistence of pine trees below 30 cm, highlighting the importance of seed tree removal and ongoing monitoring to prevent new seedlings and escapees. Thus, seed tree removal will represent the second stage of the intervention, requiring the involvement of public and private institutions for the use of machinery and waste management, which can be a by-product of economic value.