The scent of charred wood hung heavy in the air, though the flames had been extinguished days earlier. Skeletons of trees loomed over the ash-whitened hillside, some still emitting wisps of smoke as they smoldered. Canada Park, once a haven for hikers and cyclists, lay empty and desolate early Sunday afternoon in wake of the wildfires that devastated central Israel last week.

The woodland park, one of the hardest-hit sites during the blazes that tore through the hills west of Jerusalem on Wednesday and Thursday, will take decades to recover, said its chief caretaker at the KKL-JNF Jewish National Fund.

“It was a gem. It was heaven on earth that was burned,” lamented Nitai Zakharia, the park’s head forester.

Zakharia, who has managed the park for seven years as a KKL field director, looked despondent as he surveyed what remained of the forest in his pickup truck that day, passing large swaths of ashen ground where bushes and trees once stood.

Canada Park, also known as Ayalon-Canada Park, stretches across some 12,000 dunams (3,000 acres) in the Judean foothills. Located in the West Bank just over the Green Line, the park attracted 2-3 million visitors each year.

That is, until the fires came.

According to Zakharia’s rough estimate, the blaze torched around 70 percent of the park’s flora, covering some 8,000 dunams (2,000 acres).

According to official estimates, at least 20,000 dunams (5,000 acres) burned across the area of the Jerusalem hills, devastating forests, though there was only minimal property damage and only a handful of minor injuries.

Firefighters managed to bring the blazes under control by Thursday, but many were still working overtime as of Sunday to combat sudden flare-ups that threatened to reignite conflagrations.

As he drove, Zakharia’s walkie-talkie chattered with reports of small fires breaking out. Flames were kicking back up in Kula Forest, near Elad, which also falls under his purview.

In Canada Park, several tree trunks were burning idly Sunday afternoon, producing small flames and billows of smoke three full days after firefighters managed to contain the outbreak.

Pointing to leaves that had turned orange-red, Zakharia somberly noted that many of the trees that weren’t burnt to a crisp had still sustained irreparable heat damage and would likely die in the coming weeks.

In years past, Canada Park had........

© The Times of Israel