Introduction
We could say that the potential forest type in this area of the Baix Montseny is cork oak and laurustinus. However, some processes of degradation and/or clear human intervention have led to the current diversity of forest masses that we can observe, generally mixed forests of stone and Aleppo pines, evergreen oaks and the occasional oak. Some parts in the south of the municipal district of Santa Maria de Palautordera have also been penetrated by the cork oak, which is perfectly different from conventional holm oaks due to the type of bark, as the bark of the cork oak is the primitive state of the cork. This is the case of the forest that we can see at this point and that we will walk through before we reach the bed of the Els Abaus stream. They are rather young cork oaks and, at the most, only the first spongy cork has been extracted from them. The first cork is removed when the tree is 25 years old and it is of very low quality.