Foresters from the ONF (French National Forest Office) explained to the students how to plant trees ©Kinomé
Municipal forest of Wegscheid, Alsace, France, December 2022
The communal forest of Wegscheid is situated in the Haut-Rhin department of France. Some plots of its land are mainly covered with fir and spruce stands. Since 2018, these species have been suffering from drought and successive attacks by bark beetles. The project aims to replace the diseased spruce trees in Wegscheid forest with diverse species more resilient to climate change. This project has an important educational aspect through the involvement of schoolchildren from the commune. In this way, 4,260 trees of 9 different species will be planted over the long term, in two phases.
A Tree for You has partnered with the ONF (French National Forest Office) for the technical part of the planting and with Kinomé and its Forest&Life programme for the educational side.
The project started in 2021, on plot n°10 of Wegscheid communal forest, by preparing the soil and planting with ONF technicians. On Thursday 24 and Friday 25 February 2022, pupils and teachers from the surrounding schools joined the ONF technicians and played an active part in the planting.
Over these two days, nearly 175 pupils from the schools of Rimbach, Oberbruck, Kirchberg, Masevaux, Sewen, and Dolleren planted 1,366 trees out of the 2,000 planned for Wegscheid municipal forest! Watch this video (in French) from the local paper L’Alsace about the event.
Volunteers from the municipality of Wegscheid, the mayor, and municipal councillors planted 410 trees. The rest were planted by ONF foresters and forest management trainees.
In total, 2,000 seedlings of 7 different species were planted during the 2022 planting phase, including:
- 550 Douglas firs
- 550 European larches
- 700 Corsican pines
- 50 chestnut trees
- 50 wild apple trees
- 50 wild pear trees
- 50 ginko biloba trees
Planting these trees aims to:
- reforest damaged stands
- encourage a mixture of species adapted to climate change
- restore degraded ecosystems
- develop biodiversity
- educate local inhabitants about climate change and its challenges
Douglas fir, European larch and laricio pine seedlings ©Kinomé
The next steps for this planting phase will be monitoring and maintaining of the freshly planted plots. At the same time, another planting phase is planned for the winter of 2022/2023, with children from surrounding schools once again being actively involved.
This year, about 163 pupils from the schools of Sentheim, Lauw, and Sewen, together with their teachers, will take part in Kinomé’s Forest&Life programme and the planting days planned for March 2023.
Stay tuned for more news from the field!
