Illustration of the Montmorency forest, in the Val d'Oise.

-

A. GELEBART / 20 MINUTES

The trees of the French forests are suffocating.

Faced with the dramatic consequences of global warming, forests will be able to benefit from the government's stimulus plan as an “accelerator” to replenish and equip themselves.

In an interview with AFP this Thursday, the Director General of the National Forestry Office (ONF) Bertrand Munch announced that he wanted to replant and increase the resistance of trees to drought and disease.

"All the diseases that we see right now are on the same subject: the trees don't have enough water, or the water isn't coming at the right time," says Munch.

In addition to attacks by bark beetles, these beetles which dig galleries under the bark of trees and particularly spruces in the Grand-Est, trees suffer from multiple pathologies.

Drought and disease

Thus, prestigious woods like the forest of Tronçais in the Allier, a jewel of the ONF which has 200-year-old trees, are affected by the drought: “all our beeches are dying of drought and we have 10, 15% of our iconic oaks that are drying, ”says Munch.

On this forest, “three years in a row, half the water fell than in previous years.

This "brutal phenomenon" and the diseases induced affect according to him about 220,000 hectares of public forests out of the 4.6 million in France.

"Nature will adapt, but at the speed at which it is happening, the movement will not happen by itself", underlines Mr. Munch for whom it is necessary "to act for the forest".

The Minister of Agriculture Julien Denormandie recently announced a budget of 200 million euros for the forest, including 150 million devoted to its reforestation in order to help it adapt to climate change.

Mr. Munch sees it as "a very important accelerator compared to the way we usually work": planting, doing "assisted regeneration", fencing to protect the young shoots from the game, "it all costs money. », He emphasizes.

The ONF, in a delicate financial situation due in particular to the stagnation of wood prices aggravated by the Covid-19 health crisis, "was in a kind of impasse", according to its director.

Develop forestry

If the allocation of this envelope between public and private has not yet been decided, according to Mr. Munch, the ONF, which usually replants about 2,000 hectares per year, has "identified 10 to 15,000 hectares of state forests" on which it would like to intervene in the next two years.

The spruces of the Grand-Est, the chestnut trees of Montmorency (Ile-de-France), the ash trees of Boulogne (Pas-de-Calais) and oak and beech plantations in the Allier could benefit in particular from this effort.

“In some places, we will change the essences.

For example, we know that the sessile oak tolerates drought better than the beech ”, explains Mr. Munch, who also mentions the possibility of looking“ on the same species ”for trees originating in“ places where it is drier ”and therefore more resistant.

Changes in the silviculture methods of ONF agents are also to be expected, according to Mr. Munch, who cites the possibility, in places, of evolving towards a "mosaic" forest, more varied in species.

Future recruitments?

Asked about the evolution of human resources to carry out these projects, Mr. Munch was unclear.

"We can make a number of productivity gains in the way we manage our forest, but all in all we still need ONF agents to do the work and more and more," he said. declared, recalling being "in the discussion of a contract of objectives 2021-2025".

"The 2016-2020 contract of objectives had said" maintenance of staff "," maintenance of the payroll ", it was denied both on the payroll and on the workforce, so we will try to conclude a contract with the state which is more realistic, ”concluded Mr. Munch, less than two weeks before the presentation of the 2021 finance bill in the Council of Ministers.

The ONF employs 9,000 people, 56% of whom are civil servants or public law contractors.

Planet

To save the French forest, it would be necessary to plant one tree per inhabitant for 30 years

Planet

Biodiversity: Two-thirds of vertebrates have disappeared in nearly 50 years, warns WWF

  • Planet

  • Climate change

  • Tree

  • Weather

  • Global warming

  • Forest