After the devastating wildfires of August 7, 2024, the Municipality of Amari has taken a meaningful step toward recovery: distributing 6,500 young olive trees to residents and producers whose groves were damaged or destroyed.
It is a gesture that goes beyond compensation. In Amari, olives are not a crop alone; they are geography, memory, and livelihood woven together. The fires tore through extensive cultivated land, leaving scars not only on farms but on the familiar rhythm of hills once patterned with silver-green groves.
The saplings are being distributed through the presidents of the affected local communities and correspond to trees officially declared to ELGA, ensuring that help reaches those most impacted. Their procurement was made possible through private donations and the response of local businesses, a reminder that recovery in rural Crete often begins with collective effort rather than grand announcements.
Mayor Pantelis Mourtanos acknowledged both the scale of the loss and the urgency of action, noting that the damage in the wider Ampadia area was immense and that compensation procedures for plant and livestock capital must move swiftly. At the same time, he stressed that replanting cannot wait for paperwork alone.
“As the municipal authority, we will continue our relief and restoration efforts, standing by our fellow citizens who have been through so much, with the aim of restoring olive production and strengthening the local economy,” he said in an official communique.
Olive trees require time, patience, and years before they yield, making early intervention essential.
For visitors, this initiative matters too. The olive groves of Amari are not decorative scenery; they shape the visual identity of southern Rethymno and the inland routes travellers follow toward villages, gorges, and mountain tavernas. Replanting today ensures that future journeys will still pass through living landscapes, not fire-scorched absences.
The municipality has made clear that this is not a symbolic act, but part of a longer process aimed at restoring olive production, supporting the local economy, and repairing the land itself. In Crete, recovery is rarely instant — but when it happens, it takes root slowly, one tree at a time.
And in Amari, the hills are already preparing to grow back.