The cantabric basin in the Basque Country is characterized by a rough orography, so there is a mountain agriculture based in familiar and extensive but small size holdings. The farms are dispersed in the territory designing a singular mosaic landscape. Usually they are mixed agroforestry holdings, based on the cattle raising and they have always a variable surface of forest land usually occupied by radiata pine plantations.
During the XXth century the rural population and farmers in this region have developed a forest culture or knowhow focused mainly on the plantations of radiata pine. At the beginning of the century most of the forest lands were deforested and the fast growing radiata pine plantations (with an average of 13 m3/ha) encouraged many private owners to reforest their properties. This process was reinforced by the industrialisation of the economy in the region that took place in the second half of the XXth century.
The radiata pine was introduced in the Basque Country around 1870 by D. Mario Adan de Yarza, and the adaptation of this tree to the climate and the soils of this region was exceptional. The surface occupied by the plantations of radiata pine have increased during the century in the region to reach 150.199 ha. Which represents the 39% of the forests in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country.
The harvested roundwood of radiata pine is approximately 1.800.000 m3 each year and the utilization of this roundwood has changed radically in the last twenty years, and consequently also the silviculture of those plantations.
Previously the stands were managed with a rotation of around 20-25 years, and the use of the roundwood was for trituration and paper pulp.
But actually most of the radiata pine stands are managed with a rotation of 32-35 years and the roundwood obtained is used in sawmills.

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The ownership of the Itesasi forest is shared by the inhabitants of the villages of Urrunaga and Legutiano. It is a public forest, but the property belongs to the inhabitants of those two villages, not to the municipalities. As this forest is included in the Registry of Public Utility, its management is done by the Forest Service of the Regional Council of the province of Araba, by mutual agreement with the two local authorities representing the inhabitants of the villages.
This forest is a mixed oak and beech forest, and has characteristics that makes it a paradigm of multifunctionality. First of all the soil protection and enhancement of water quality are essential, because this forest is nearby two water dams that provides potable water to large cities.
The recreational activities are also very important in this forest, because it is only 20 km far away from a big city like Vitoria, and two roads goes just through the limits of the forest making the access to this forest very easy for the people.
The naturalistic interest of this forest is also significant, it is just in the middle of the natural corridor between two water dams and two Natural Parks, and the diversity of ecosystems present in this forest, with many water areas, a lot of old trees and clearing areas makes of it an ideal habitat for a lot of animal species present in this forest.
Lately the historical and cultural aspects are also very remarkable in this forest, even nowadays the trenches of the Spanish civil war are visible in the forest, in fact in this area there was one of the most important fronts and here took place important battles. Otherwise the shape of many trees in this forest is very particular they are very old trees with a very thick trunk up to two meters, where it divides in a lot of branches, they are reminiscences of ancient silvicultural practices when the beech and oak wood was used to obtain charcoal.

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