Fires in Gironde: the Pilat dune greatly weakened by forest fires
A view of the Dune du Pilat on July 18, 2022 as fires rage in Gironde.
AP - Sophie Garcia
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
The fires ravaged the Landes forest (south-west of France) to the foot of the Pilat dune.
Today, without this natural barrier, the highest dune in Europe, its 100 meters high and 55 million cubic meters of sand, could now threaten the surroundings.
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What will become of the Pilat dune without the forest that surrounded it?
The first assessments have not yet started, but for Élodie Martinie-Cousty, pilot of the Oceans, seas and coasts network at France Nature Environnement, the risk is that this enormous mass of sand will engulf part of the landscape.
“
The whole Bassin d'Arcachon is an immense dune massif, it's not just the Pilat dune,
” she explains.
Planting this forest was to fix the dune.
But even with the forest, the dune was advancing.
Every year, it advances three or four meters, and there, I believe that it will advance much faster
”.
The authorities will therefore have to decide how to replant the forest.
But for Élodie Martinie-Cousty, another possibility is also to let nature choose.
“
Perhaps we need forests that are not forests that we are going to cultivate.
They will undoubtedly have to be more resilient.
Leave the forests in free evolution, that is to say look behind the dune how the forest that has burned will regenerate on its own
”.
Rather than a forest planted with a single species, Élodie Martinie-Cousty believes that a variety of trees that grow naturally could reconstitute a richer ecosystem, better able to adapt to climate change and droughts and heat waves in come.
► To read also: Fires in France: in Gironde, economic reconstruction already in everyone's mind
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Environment
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