This Thursday, among the 45 deliberations of the municipal council of La Teste-de-Buch, one of them evokes the User Forest of La Teste-de-Buch, this primary forest ravaged by the terrible fire of July 2022 in a firstly then by the bark beetle, this insect which digs and kills weakened pines. Today, only 10% of the trees in this Forest remain.
Jean-François Boudigues, the finance assistant, explains on the microphone that the forestry work will end at the end of June. In total, we could approach the 550,000 to 570,000 tons of wood removed from this forest, when all the logs have been removed, at the end of August, via track 214. This difficult, dangerous work (a forestry worker died in January 2024) have blocked a lot of things since February 2023.
“I have just signed, at 2 p.m., an order for the reopening of the entire massif from July 1. »
Access to the massif had been prohibited as long as the work lasted. It will be reopened. this Thursday, in front of the Testein elected officials, Patrick Davet, the LR mayor of La Teste-de-Buch, made the announcement: “I have just signed, at 2 p.m., an order for the reopening of the entire massif from the 1is July. I had undertaken to prohibit access as long as the work was in progress. » With the construction site almost complete, the Forest is being returned to its users. “Track 214 remains prohibited,” continued the mayor this Thursday. And it will stay that way. There are still trucks driving there to remove the wood and its condition is very degraded. »
“We’ll see then”
Finally, the end of the forestry project has a second consequence: “Until now, all permits to rebuild the cabins had been refused,” says Patrick Davet. Once again, the User Forest was not secure. But today, I say, resubmit your permits and I will sign them. Then we’ll see what happens. »
“If the destroyed cabin, in the inventory, is 40 m², it will not have to be rebuilt at 80 m².”
Forty-seven cabins, out of the 150 recorded in the User Forest, were destroyed by the fire of July 2022. In the fall of 2022, Fabienne Buccio, then prefect of Gironde, asked Patrick Davet by letter to apply article R.111-2 of the Town Planning Code “to refuse any reconstruction or rehabilitation project likely to harm public safety”. Part of the heritage of this forest was thus in legal impasse.
The mayor then took it upon himself not to issue these permits before they were overturned by the prefecture’s legality check. “Today, I will sign these permits, since the work is completed, but I will sign the permits for cabins identical to what is listed in the inventory of cabins of the User Forest annexed to the local plan of town planning of La Teste. If the destroyed cabin in the inventory is 40 m², it should not be rebuilt to 80 m². And there must be a 50 meter airial around and two escape routes. How can you allow people to go to their cabin that hasn’t burned down and deny others the permit to rebuild your burnt cabin? »
It remains to be seen what the State will say when it sees these permits issued…
