On 2 March, 2026, the top of Zone I was on fire. The local fire department arrived at 4:51 PM CET to put out the fire that affected 3000m² (0.3ha) and was about to reach a cottage nearby. They returned at 10:33 PM CET to put out remaining hot spots.
I arrived at the hill at 11:35 AM CET to assess the damage, given that neither the police nor our local newspaper published any reports about it. The affected area is a few meters next to my usual route.
I discovered a slightly-burnt aluminum tray of a disposable grill next to a fallen tree on top of the hill, indicating that someone decided to have a barbecue up there and wanted to use the bushes as a dumpster.
Overall the damage is limited to the top of the hill and parts of the path leading to the top. While the vast majority of butterfly and odonata spots are unaffected, this spot harbored a relatively huge ant colony, various bugs and escargots, while G.rhamni, C. arcania and C. pamphilus often visited it. A hidden thyme field sadly got burnt down entirely and bids are avoiding the area.
The rest of the hill recently got grazed by sheep, whereas the abandoned field to the south of the hill has been mowed entirely. There may be a significant shortage of oregano this year, particularly affecting M. jurtina which has become dependent on it and likely will the remaining plants at the hillside where burnets have claimed a small patch of oregano over the past years.
No other zones were checked. I had to delay my damage analysis due to having developed an allergy towards hazel pollen that prevented me from leaving my home for a few days due to acute hives that reached my throat. The fire additionally worsened my asthma. I'm on new medication that manages my allergy to the point of being able to get back to research.
While I was busy getting my allergy under control, my capsule host cities.yesterweb.org got hacked and all content was deleted by the malicious actor. I'm currently porting my local backup to an HTML mirror on Codeberg while I stay in touch with the admins who are planning to replace Yesterweb with an independent host.