Louise Sallé / Photo credit: JULIAN STRATENSCHULTE / DPA / AFP 14:13 p.m., October 08, 2023

While 2023 could be the hottest year on record, trees are already suffering tremendously from global warming. To prepare the forest of tomorrow, the National Forestry Office is planting new species. This is particularly the case in Vienne, where Europe 1 visited.

The year 2023 is on track to become the hottest year on record, according to estimates by the European Copernicus Observatory. Trees are suffering enormously and to adapt to global warming, the National Forestry Office (ONF) is now planting new species. Europe 1 went to Vienne, where new trees are starting to appear.

Trees of different species planted

Newly planted oak trees grow through plastic wire mesh in the shade of tall pine trees. "We have downy oak, a southern species, so adapted to hotter and drier summers. We also planted laricio pine," explains Guillaume Labarre, head of the ONF in the Vienne region. "Having at least two species allows us to fall back on one species when we have one that has health problems or water stress due to hot, dry summers."

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A few hectares further on, another model of forest is being tested: hundred-year-old trees stand side by side with very young shoots. "The light conditions are quite important precisely because this arrival of light will benefit the small trees," says Guillaume Labarre.

The forest of tomorrow must be as diverse as possible: "The more varied solutions you have in your toolbox, in your palette, the more likely it is that you will find a good answer in your palette," explains Albert Maillet, Director of Forests at the ONF. The planning money is to be used to accelerate seed production in nurseries and plant nearly one billion trees by 2030.