BRIEF HISTORY

The municipality of Umbrías, like the rest of the Gredos area, is characterized by smallholdings, with the average plot size being less than one third of a hectare. This situation, together with the strong emigration suffered in the late 1960s, has made the management and maintenance of the land by its owners difficult, leading to part of the resources falling into disuse and greatly increasing the risk of wildfires.

The neighborhood meetings promoted by Plan 42 of the Regional Government of Castilla y León and carried out by Agraer Socio-environmental Initiatives were always very well attended and their proposals were received with hope. The first meeting took place in April 2007. At the meeting held in August 2008, a group of volunteers emerged who, as a Working Group, were tasked with preparing the foundations for establishing an association of landowners. Most of the landowners were contacted to explain the objective and encourage them to join, and after a laborious process, the final drafts of the Internal Regulations were prepared and submitted to the Assembly at an informative meeting in April 2009.

The drafts were enriched with contributions from the neighbors, and in August 2009 the Board was elected to present them to the Constituent Assembly, during which the Statutes and the Internal Regulations (RRI) were approved. The association was registered under number 0002098, in the FIRST section, and the Tax Agency assigned it a tax identification number.

From now on, with the Association already constituted, we can begin actions aimed at resolving the current situation of land abandonment by means of a concentrated and sustainable management of the members’ properties and by promoting a sustainable development strategy for the Aravalle valley. We have reached this point thanks to the efforts of the working group members and the institutional collaboration of Argareal Association and the Umbrías Town Council. To achieve our objectives, we need the support, trust, and individual responsibility of all the bodies of the different public and private institutions.

It is worth highlighting the broad thematic scope of the Association’s actions, which include improving paths, restoring meadows and grazing land, irrigated and dry orchards, riparian forests, reforestation work, management of tree species and densities, etc. Meetings have been held with Provincial, Regional, and State authorities responsible for rural areas, and in all cases they have assessed the work carried out very positively and have encouraged us to continue working.