Its total area is around 8,000 hectares, in the heart of the Arvert peninsula. Planted under Napoleon III to fix the sand, the Coubre national forest is a green lung near Royan. Composed mainly of maritime pines and holm oaks, it is also home to deer, roe deer, wild boar ... However, this animal population is declining, which greatly worries the environmental protection association Les 7 Sentinelles, created in 2015. " The wild boars, there are too many of them and they do damage. I would like to point out that we are not against hunting at all. The sensitive issue is that of the deer. In 2015, there were about sixty deer bawling. I organize outings to listen to the call of the deer and this year I have only identified a fortnight. The sustainability of the species becomes threatened ”,considers Olivier Marvaud, the president of the association.
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The ONF (National Forestry Office), manager of the forest, puts forward a figure of 22 bawling deer and about sixty deer, against actually 60 bawling deer in 2015 and nearly 180 deer. “We carry out a professional count which takes place during the slab, because the deer remain fixed on the same plots. During five evenings, from 8 pm to midnight, our agents and hunters carried out a census and the workforce is stable compared to 2020, ”says Jean-Bernard Duprat, head of the ONF Charente-Maritime. He admits, however, that the deer population has been "purposely reduced" by hunting plans in recent years because "they eat too many tender shoots and young seedlings. Deer weighing 25 kilos, we get along with it, but deer weighing 150 kilos do too much damage. "
Haro on clean cuts
However, the forestry manager assures us that the ONF has "more and more difficulty in regenerating the forest naturally", in particular because of the game.
Between 2000 and 2020, a period corresponding to the previous management plan for the Coubre forest, major clear cuts of trees were carried out with a view to regeneration.
Sometimes impressive barings, denounced in 2015 by Les 7 Sentinelles.
“It was our first battle.
We consider that these clear cuts destroy biodiversity, not to mention the carbon footprint generated.
Without the protective canopy, there are places where two-thirds of the shoots are sunburnt.
Of course, a forest is maintained but without destroying everything over such large areas, ”argues Olivier Marvaud.
The NFB claims to defend biodiversity
In the new 2021-2040 management plan for the Coubre forest, which provides for cutting and work for the next twenty years, the ONF has put an end to it. “In 2000, these cuts were going well with the general public. Then they became badly perceived. We have heard of course that this shocked the population. But be aware that some birds and even deer need to evolve in these open environments. If we no longer make clear cuts, we will reduce biodiversity. Thinning also promotes fruiting, which is why these clear cuts will be kept on smaller areas, for example from 10 hectares to islets of 1 or 2 hectares. Today, a third of the forest will be managed irregularly,that is to say that on the plots where before all the trees were the same age there will now be woods of different ages. Gaps dating from the 1999 storm have naturally grown back and we are going to enhance them, ”explains Jean-Bernard Duprat.
Olivier Marvaud recognizes that the ONF "is making efforts", that these "irregular forests are going in the right direction, but the basic problem is that the ONF is an EPIC (Establishment of an industrial and commercial nature), torn by financial stakes. in a context where the price of timber is rising sharply.
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