Auberive is a small town in the south of Haute-Marne known for its abbey but also for its forest. It is no coincidence that this fringe between Haute-Marne and Côte d'Or is the territory selected in 2019 to create the eleventh national park dedicated to the forest… To the deciduous forest more precisely. Here, the high forest is known to be “irregular”. The work of a particular and deliberate management.
In the 1980s, the trees growing in the Auberive forest were still rather uniform: of the same species, of the same age. When they are “harvested” by clear cutting, they leave the surface they occupied almost bare. Concerned about the visible impact on the landscape and the economic weight of these cuts, the Auberive region forest management union (Sigfra) wants to break with this traditional management. Thus, in 1995, the conversion into irregular high forest of 6,000 hectares of hardwood stands began. What should we understand by this? It's simple, an irregular high forest is characterized by a population of trees of different species and presenting all stages of evolution, from seedlings to old high forests.
Trees that evolve at different rates mean sampling at intervals that depend on species and ages. Certainly, this management deserves more attention and time, but it ensures that the forest does not lose its trees all at once and thus better preserves the forest ecosystems (soil, fauna, flora, mushrooms, etc.).
Forestry capital is slightly increasing
Over time, Sigfra and the National Forestry Office (ONF) have gone further in monitoring the evolution of this forest and its management. More than 1,000 permanent plots have been identified and therefore allow precise monitoring of the evolution of these irregular high forests. Twenty years after their designation, they have made it possible to take stock of this form of mixed silviculture with continuous cover (SMCC). With what lessons? The report by Benoît Méheux, forestry engineer, provides valuable lessons. Forestry capital is increasing slightly.
“In Mixed Forestry with Continuous Cover (SMCC) or irregular high forest, the objective is the production of large quality timber. The owner therefore seeks to maximize the quantity of large timber present in his forest. The structure targeted here by the owner is 50% Large Wood, 30% Medium Wood and 20% Small Wood (in basal area). The evolution since 1998 has been slow but tends towards this objective,” describes the specialist in his report. He also says that “regeneration has been multiplied by 10”.
A management that has set a precedent
Still, this irregular forest has become a real laboratory. In 2021, it gave birth to the Irregular Forest School, a project to inform and train in this forestry that is more “close to nature”, with supporting examples, studies and results. Today, 20% of the French forest has taken the management carried out by Sigfra d'Auberive as an example.
This forest is the only one in the Grand-Est to have obtained the FSC, Forest Stewardship Council, label, which crowns sustainable and responsible management of the forest, a trademark highly sought after by the wood processing industry. And that's not all. The Sigfra territory is an educational land area to allow schoolchildren to come and discover the forest, its professions but also the fauna and flora.
The union, which brings together 27 municipalities and manages more than 8,000 hectares of forest area, has just celebrated its 50th birthday, and continues to engage in more reasonable forest management. It is also the new winner of a WWF (worldwide fund for nature) call for projects which aims to “sanctuary” municipal forests by notarial deed through a Real Environmental Obligation (ORE). It will no longer be possible to exploit anything other than the forest on the cadastral plots of each municipality. 130 plots on the perimeter of the union are concerned. Sigfra, during the celebration of its 50th anniversary in September 2024, endorsed the project in the presence of the national director of WWF.
