Looters attack century-old oaks, a real “heartbreak”

“They leave behind them desolation”: wood thieves have been targeting, since the start of the year, plots where century-old oak trees flourished, causing significant moral and financial damage in the Meuse, where these facts are new.

Wood theft “has existed since the dawn of time,” recalls François Godinot, president of the Meuse Forest Owners’ Union (Fransylva 55). It can come from an operator who goes beyond “to the right or left of his plot” or can be characterized by the theft of already cut logs. “We know how to manage that,” he says.

But these thefts of oak trees, the price of which is high, are “much more serious” and “new” in the department: concretely, “indices notice that such a plot is quite discreetly located”, not too far from the national road, with “beautiful oaks”, and in one or two days, these trees, often a hundred years old, are cut down and taken away. Small private plots are the most popular, according to him. There are more than 20,000 owners in Meuse.

This is what happened to Éric Berton, in the Louppy-le-Château area. This forest owner was informed, at the end of March, by a representative of the Meuse Chamber of Agriculture that his plot had been pillaged. Without his permission, obviously.

The criminals “had the goal of collecting as many logs as possible by going in a straight line,” he explains. In and around his plot, there were many oak trees, which were targeted by the thugs. “They acted as an organized gang, that’s for sure,” thinks the forest owner, who underlines the immensity of the task to be accomplished: “We not only have to cut it down, but also top the tree: it doesn’t take five minutes ! »

According to him, even if most of the thefts took place last winter, when the forest was less frequented, the “looters” did everything to be discreet: they “had to take out the wood as they came, loaded it on a truck, and the shipment was done immediately,” he believes.

A financial and moral loss

The loss is first of all financial. Mr. Berton estimates his losses at “5,000, 6,000 euros”, but “neighbors of the plot lost double that” at least, he emphasizes. But it’s also “heartbreaking” for Éric Berton. “Those that were cut down were oaks that were between 120 and 150 years old,” he regrets.

It is also necessary to rehabilitate the land, which the criminals have damaged, by making deep holes with their machines, which have not been filled in and “today penalize the regeneration of the forest as it should be done”. “They have no scruples,” he complains. “They leave desolation behind them,” summarizes Mr. Godinot.

In mid-September, seven procedures linked to complaints of wood theft were recorded at the Commercy gendarmerie company, Bar-le-Duc public prosecutor Sofian Saboulard told AFP. But “at this stage of the investigations, no element confirms the thesis (…) of an organized gang or mafia networks”, specifies the magistrate, who explains that “almost all of the procedures” concern “cutting of wood illegal activities carried out in excess of the limits of the plots initially authorized for logging or woodcutting companies.

Five victims in Louppy-le-Château

However, in Louppy-le-Château, a procedure identifying five victims “is linked to an act of theft in the literal sense of the term”, where “no authorization or contract would have been issued by the victims” to “unidentified” companies. to this day” who felled and carried away trees. The Commercy Research Brigade is investigating these facts “causing significant economic damage”, recalls the prosecutor.

Investigations are continuing, he added. They are “complex”, “the different procedures not all presenting objective elements allowing an obvious link to be made”. In addition, “testimonies and technical and scientific police evidence are rare on this type of case”.

The Meuse Chamber of Agriculture has called on local residents to be vigilant, to take vehicle registration plates and to take photos. “Valuable” aid which could enable the establishment of “a surveillance network”.