“It’s new in the Meuse”: the ravages of wood thieves who pose as loggers

Seen from above, this patch of forest seems very much alive. However, it is completely decimated. It was last June that David Gabriel, its owner, discovered the ransacking. All its finest oaks have been cut down and stolen. “We are faced with a fait accompli, it is a massacre, it is a misfortune, it is an attack on property rights. The oaks around here are 100-150 years old. To have beautiful ones, these are plots which date practically from before the Revolution. Properties that have remained in the family for a very long time“, he says in the TF1 1 p.m. report visible at the top of this article.

The sale of the trees would perhaps have brought him 25,000 euros. But the damage is much greater if we take into account the time it will take to renew the vegetation. “It’s no longer forest that’s taking over, it’s going to be mainly grass. And above all, the absence of seed oaks here means that we will not have the seeds to renew the seedling deposit. And before we have trees that can overcome all the obstacles they have to overcome, we have at least 15, 20, 25 years.”explains Arnaud Apert, forestry advisor to the Meuse Chamber of Agriculture.

“We fear an organized mafia”

Private forests are very fragmented, with 23,000 owners in Meuse for example. Wood thieves can therefore easily pose as real lumberjacks with all the necessary equipment. “It’s new in the Meuse, we have six flights like that in six months. We fear a network, we fear an organized mafia which has set its sights on the Meuse and which will come and harvest its harvest.”worries François Godinot, president of the Meuse forest owners’ union.

A year and a half ago, as our report shows, a TF1 team discovered wild cutting of firewood with a mayor of Moselle.

Contacted by our team, the gendarmerie did not wish to comment on these thefts, considering that they had other priorities. In January 2023, the Thionville court sentenced a wood-stealing crook to prison, but the judgment is still under appeal.

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For forest owners, this is a lack of consideration. “We do not have the means, the justice system does not have the means to bring these cases to a conclusion and it is imperative that the State gives us the means to follow up and punish“, says Didier Daclin, president of the Moselle forest owners’ union. In the absence of prosecution, many forest owners are hesitant to file a complaint. As a result, thefts continue from one department to another.