“Someone should explain to me why we cut down trees to renature!
It makes no sense… " ;
“You speak, with their machines, they devastate them, the dunes, that's for sure!
»… If they are more temperate today, the first impressions of the inhabitants of South Morbihan on the announcement of the massive felling of maritime pines along the coast between Quiberon and Gâvres were initially quite radical.
The removal of maritime pines is still in progress west of the departmental road leading from Plouharnel to Saint-Pierre-Quiberon, but the National Forestry Office (ONF) had to explain this paradoxical situation to the general public.
"The gray dune is the reservoir of dune biodiversity"
“The maritime pines planted after the Second World War to the east of the departmental road and around the Chouannerie museum have spread into the gray dune.
Natural seedlings have developed for about thirty years.
Between 1991 and today, the area occupied by pines has increased fivefold, from 1.9 ha to 9.5 ha!
summarizes the Brittany agency of the ONF.
The problem is that these trees less than 30 years old harm the back-dune wetlands and the gray dune, a Natura 2000 priority habitat protected on a European scale.
The gray dune of Quiberon is one of the largest in one piece in Europe.
“Little by little, continues the ONF, the pines modify the balance of the ecosystem of the gray dune by providing organic matter (needles, dead wood) and shade.
They dry out the wetlands and suffocate the characteristic flora of the gray dune, some species of which are very rare and protected, such as coastal omphalodes or sand toadflax.
The gray dune is the reservoir of dune biodiversity.
»
It is estimated that it will take two to three years for plants to recolonize the gray dune and four to five years for the balance of its ecosystem to be restored.