Official signing, this Wednesday, December 18, of the agreement linking the town hall and the Bordeaux Sciences Agro school, a public establishment of higher education and agricultural research, under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture, Agri-Food and Agriculture. forest.
Sabine Brun-Rageul, its director, explained that “For obvious educational reasons, it is very important for us to create a network of forest schools. We already had the 800 hectare forest in Retjons, but it is only pine trees, while Abesse presents a very interesting diversity. This is ideal for addressing the many forestry issues in training courses like ours. »
This is particularly what emerged from the presentation made by Pierig Lebigre, the head of the Forests department: management, protection and development of Bordeaux Sciences Agro, a Saint-Paul resident who also works on a simple forest management plan. Abesse defining what should be done with the site in the next fifteen years.
“An oasis”
He compared Abesse to “a heavenly oasis in the middle of an ocean of conifers” and detailed the distribution of species: 45% pure hardwoods and in particular an exceptional plane grove, 45% mixed hardwoods and 10% maritime pines. The engineer also presented the area outside the forest with the peat bogs, the pond, the marshes and the buildings including the castle. “A multifunctional treasure which benefits from a microclimate, which has not been maintained since the 1980s, and which has come close to disappearing. »
The forges with their 2,000 workers were also mentioned. “The overall idea is to disseminate knowledge on the functioning of a multifunctional forest, to create a place of experimentation for research and development and to have a scientific repository,” explained Pierig Lebigre.
“It was the municipality’s desire to benefit from a scientific perspective so as not to make mistakes and properly prepare for the future. And this will allow us to seek new funding,” concluded the mayor, Julien Bazus.
