A gaping hole in the forest, thousands of trees felled and an industrial zone project completely at a standstill… Since 2022, the project to build an activity zone in the town of Saint-Didier-en-Velay is controversial when deforestation has already been carried out on nearly 11 hectares.
On the one hand, the Loire-Semène Community of Communes, which is leading the project, has been fighting for more than ten years to allow several companies to set up and thus contribute to the economic development of the region. On the other, opponents – now united as a collective – who see this vast project as yet another “heresy” and above all a real “ecological disaster”. This battle between elected officials and nature defenders is now in the hands of justice. As a reminder, in April 2024, the Administrative Court of Clermont-Ferrand annulled the prefectural decree authorizing the project, thus vindicating the wood defenders. At least what's left of it, since thousands of trees have already been cut down. For its part, the community of municipalities logically appealed this decision last June. Since then, time has stood still in this Haute-Loire forest where, month after month, nature is gradually taking back its rights.
The crux of the matter lies in particular on the age of the forest. For Frédéric Girodet, president of the Loire-Semène Community of Communes, “this is a plantation, there has never been an old forest there. We have rightly avoided them. The presence of remarkable wetlands and forests led to the project being shifted and reduced from 17 to 11 hectares.”
The thousands of trees felled would therefore concern “a forestry plantation less than 50 years old”, we can read in the latest community bulletin, a document widely relayed to the local population. An argument which would simply be “lying” for the opponents. According to the collective, “the impact study of October 2021 clearly shows that the area studied is a presumed ancient forest (document from the National Botanical Conservatory, Auvergne branch, [NDLR]). In our region, silvicultural plantations concern spruces or Douglas firs and this is not the case in the area. You also just have to ask our 90 year olds, they will tell you that they have always seen a forest in this place of the Bramard massif. Furthermore, the aerial photos do not show any alignment,” assures Christine Gouyet for the Sauvegarde Environnement associations and the Bramard wood collective.
-These letters sent to companies
If the project leader promises a whole bunch of compensatory measures, the community specifies that they “will be triggered if and only if the economic zone project succeeds”, despite the felling which is now complete. And the hatchet seems far from being buried between the opponents and the Community of Commons. In its latest community bulletin, the community also indicates that opponents would have invited candidate companies by letter to “leave the territory”. If these letters have indeed been sent, the members of the collective of opponents wish to specify the exact terms of their content: “As we wish for your sustainability and the pursuit of your economic development, we would like to advise you to seek and to seize other opportunities in our territory.” Both parties are now awaiting a new summons before the court of appeal.
Christophe Coffy
