Saint-Gatien: horse logging, logging competition at the wood festival

For four years, the Nights of the Forests event has been held on a national scale. It is within this framework and under the leadership of the municipality of Saint-Gatien-des-Bois (Calvados), that La fête du bois was created three years ago. Tomorrow, from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., the town will show the extent of the trades and much more around wood.

We open a private property especially for this day. So this will take place in an arboretum.

With its 3,300 ha of forest concentrated on 5,000, the town has “a strong forest identity”, specifies the first deputy, at the origin of the creation of the local event.

The return of the draft horse

Moreover, this is the ancient forest of the Dukes of Normandy, on the edge of their fortress of Bonneville-sur-Touques. It ended up in the hands of various owners after being divided into small batches during the Revolution.

The third edition will open at 9 a.m. with the Sonneurs of the Rallye Trompes du Cotentin, demonstrations with old and new techniques return.

Thus, horse logging is making a comeback thanks to a company from Eure with two draft horses.

This activity is still practiced, there are more of it than we think, particularly because certain spaces are inaccessible to machines.

And to admit, however, that the activity is carried out “less in a logic of production than of restoration”.

In the morning, around 11 a.m., a round table will bring together the association of Happy and Creative Frugality in Normandy and is planned around sobriety and respect for living things.

What’s new is the logging competition which will pit ten candidates against each other in ten events from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Lumberjacking competition

Cutting a washer, felling, throwing a log, estimating a height, a volume, dismantling and reassembling a chain, and a speed cutting test will constitute the key activities.

A village of artisans installed will highlight professions such as nurserymen or sawyers. Art will not be left out since painters and sculptors will also be there. Throughout the day, introductions to archery and activities for children will be offered.

Five forest walks are also planned. “Either in the morning at 10:30 a.m., in the afternoon at 2:30 p.m., botanist, on a 2.5 km route. » The two themed walks will be planned in the morning and the afternoon. One, “more meditative”, will be done with a sophrologist, “around a sensory discovery”. The other will explore the management of the domain with expert professionals or forest technicians.

A Papuan chief in the Dukes’ Forest

From 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., “we welcome the chief, Mundiya Kepanga, of a tribe from Papua New Guinea. He will show us, among other things, the art of the pen, which concerns their adornment.” The basis of the exchange that will follow with him could, among other things, be based on the screening of the 50-minute film, Tree Brotherscheduled for 4:30 p.m.

At 10:30 p.m., after dark, a final night walk is planned by the Armorican Invertebrate Study Group (Gretia) to observe forest butterflies, with a lamp. A catering area is organized on site from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. and a large parking lot will be indicated by signs and made available, nearby, in a field.

Wood festival, Saturday June 15, route de Saint-Benoit d’Hebertot, D17; Val des Cimes parking lot, in Saint-Gatien-des-Bois GPS point: 49.338131.0.224565. Registration at the Saint-Gatien-des-Bois town hall or on 02 31 65 69 82.

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