In the Vosges, the usually green forest is now dotted with reddish or brownish spots. The reason: repeated droughts in recent years which have fostered the development of a devastating insect that ravages even healthy spruces. The firs are not spared by the strong heat either.
According to Rodolphe Pierrat, deputy to the ONF Grand-Est territorial directorate: “In the most pessimistic hypotheses of climate change, the fir tree could become a relict species […] which will have regressed in line with other species such as beech , like oak, and perhaps more Mediterranean species […] ”if temperatures continue to rise.
For the head of the ONF, global warming is more than ever endangering the balance of forests in the Grand-Est region.