Dear Val,
I don' t know if anyone can help me with this problem. We are surrounded by a forest on three sides of our property, we own a small parcel of this including several large oaks , approx 500yrs old judging by their size. There are also a few belonging to another farmer. Unfortunately the farmer who has been protecting his woods, directly behind ours passed this on to his son, whom promptly sold the woods for firewood! We are not in anyway objecting to the cutting of these trees , they are not ours and whilst it is a shame that's life, we would prefer to see them managed properly saving some for the future but the new owner has never worried about this in the past! But, he is eyeing up the large oak trees , obviously they would provide a huge amount of firewood, these tree are some of the oldest around this area and it would be a shame to see them go. Does any one know about whether you can get a preservation order put on ancient trees in France, as once they are gone they are gone.
Deforestation is a problem in this region and the methods of sustainability are pretty iffy at times.
Emma
Malc says: I raised the same problem a couple of years ago when a whole swathe of land near us was devastated for firewood with no re-planting. The Region does have a sustainable forestation plan, but it refers mainly to the national parks. I heard Alain Baraton, head gardener at Versailles and regular "radio gardener" say a few years ago that there were no individual tree preservation orders. I have heard that a group of trees which form part of the "patrimoine" can be preserved, but the best line of defence seems to be to show that the trees are essential to the bio-diversity of the area (eg do rare birds of passage nest there each year, or is there a particular insect to be found..) The Sivens protesters may have some ideas!
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