The fires in Girondes and Brittany left behind thousands of hectares of burnt forests.
According to forest experts, depending on the intensity and duration of a forest fire, the heart of the wood is still exploitable and perhaps used in particular in the energy sector.
However, according to forest engineer Eglantine Goux-Cottin, interviewed by 20 Minutes, it is not good to want to exploit everything at all costs in a destroyed forest.
On Monday, the emergency services got to the end of the large forest fires that had been raging in Gironde for a fortnight.
But the good news hides a sadder one: the damage is enormous.
The fires destroyed more than 7,000 hectares of forest in Teste-de-Buch, near the Arcachon basin and nearly 14,000 ha in Landiras.
Added to this are the 1,700 hectares of moors, fir forests and hardwoods on the Monts d'Arrée, in Brittany.
Landscapes of ashes and coals, where life should not resume for several years.
But until then, what will become of these lands?
Can we do something about it immediately?
For the safety of humans, but especially that of the forest, it is really not recommended to intervene there immediately.
The emergency services have announced that the fires have been fixed, but that only means that there are no longer any active outbreaks.
In Gironde, with the peat soil in the Landiras sector, there is a risk of a smoldering fire under the ground "which can re-emerge in a fairly significant way", thus indicated to AFP the boss of the firefighters of Gironde (SDIS 33) Marc Vermeulen.
“With climate change causing earlier, longer and more intense periods of drought, the forest is under water stress.
It lacks water,” explains Eglantine Goux-Cottin, forest engineer.
“At the slightest spark, it starts again”.
For the one who is now president of the Consulting Engineer in Environment and Forestry company, we will have to wait at least several weeks before taking any action.
How to decide what to do?
Once the emergency services have completely mastered the fire, that is to say carried out the complete extinction of it, they will be able to give way to forestry experts.
“At first, we will observe what is happening”, indicates for example to AFP Paul Tourneur, biodiversity project manager at the National Office of Landes Nord Aquitaine Forests.
“The first step is to provide expertise on the risks associated with landslides, landslides or possible floods that could be triggered due to piles of wood on the ground, then to make rehabilitation proposals. burned areas", lists Philippe Caramelle, head of the Specialized Unit for the Defense of Forests against Fire (DFCI) in Corsica, on the ONF website.
In summary, the experts will "determine what was burned, with what intensity and what techniques to implement for the reconstruction", specifies the ONF.
Once the observation phase is over, the time for decisions will come.
What is possible to salvage from a burnt forest
If it is a private forest with a productive model and intended for sale, the remaining wood may eventually be sold.
"Depending on the intensity and duration of the fire, it is possible that the wood has only burned on the surface, but that once this layer has been removed, the heart remains usable", assures Eglantine Goux.
Exploitable certainly, but not by all the companies.
We forget the construction or the beautiful furniture of cabinetmakers, even if in some forests affected by these fires there were 300-year-old oaks.
The Aleppo pines generally transformed into paper pulp will no longer be able to have this use if the fire has blackened them.
“The pines will be valued for energy in the large regional biomass power plants, while the oaks will supply the firewood sector, if they are in good condition, or will be directly crushed with the pines for energy”, indicates the National Forestry Office.
What is the best way to harvest a burned forest
Although Emmanuel Macron has announced a major replanting project for the destroyed forests of Gironde, the best solution for Eglantine Goux is to do nothing.
Yes, absolutely nothing.
“The best forest engineer is the forest.
And at a time when we don't know if it will snow in April, the best way to have resilient forests, which are more resistant to climate change, is to let regeneration happen naturally”.
We therefore do not touch the stumps, even if they have burned.
“Deciduous trees regrow from these, this is called stump rejection”.
Nor do we clean up the ashes on the floor.
They will be absorbed by the latter.
In fact, for the expert, the best thing to do for the forest is to “leave it alone to recover from its disaster”.
Five hundred firefighters mobilized on a fire in the Hérault
Company
Fires in Gironde: The Dune du Pilat reopens this Wednesday, two weeks after its closure
Planet
Fire
Fire
Forest
Wood
energy