Montmorency forest, june 2020
Thanks to your support the project is already funded and 1,000 trees have been planted – to restore healthy woodland by replacing diseased chestnut trees with resistant species and protect the biodiversity of Montmorency forest.
The planting campaign was carried out just before lockdown, in February, by our partner ONF (French National Forestry Board). Preliminary work to prepare the plot had already begun in 2019. Planting took place on a 1.15-hectare plot in this forest, near Château de la Chasse.
Funding raised through A Tree for You has boosted the planting scheme to include some saplings (20%); henceforth there are 80% sessile oaks and 20% saplings on this plot, a mix that reinforces the resilience of the plantation thanks to species diversity.
Birds singing in the Montmorency forest
The partnership between ONF and A Tree for You goes further by participating in the creation of innovative tools to monitor forest management and train tomorrow’s foresters. These tools will support new methods whereby foresters can monitor growth, harvesting, biodiversity, the environment, quality evolution, species distribution, and wood size grading within stands. Thanks to these different parameters and their development, foresters can adapt their management on an ongoing basis in line with objective observations.
To date, ONF has introduced innovative tools and trained over 700 people.
Next steps: at the end of summer 2020, an inventory will assess the recovery rate (number of trees that survived their first summer). If less than 80%are still standing, a new plantation will be scheduled. The first clearing operations will take place straightaway to facilitate tree growth by ridding them of unnecessary competition.
