As part of the national program “In 1,000 municipalities the forest is a school” carried by the National Federation of Forest Municipalities (Cofor), the municipality of Flogny-la-Chappelle has responded. His class of CE2 / CM1 participates. “The objective is to introduce children to the environment of the forest as a whole, both at the natural level and from the point of view of forestry management until the end of the tree’s life.“, explains Franck Mansanti, president of the forest municipalities of Yonne and deputy mayor of Flogny-la-Chapelle.
“It’s impressive, I’ve never seen that”
The small class of 18 students came to discover “the end of the tree cycle“At the Royer sawmill in Dannemoine. In front of the big machine that cuts the two sides of a ten-meter piece of oak, the children have their eyes wide open. “I never saw that. It’s impressive because we saw how wood is cut, how it is transformed into planks to make furniture“, testifies Timéo, amazed in front of the saw. Same thing for Alain who cannot believe it: “All this wood, it will become chairs or tables, it’s the first time I see it“. All the children are speechless in front of such a spectacle. “When we worked on the forest in class, they had a great desire, unfortunately there are three absent because of the Covid“, indicates Marion Taboureau, the mistress of the class.
“A child was in tears last night, he has the Covid, and therefore he could not come here and must stay at home”, Marion Taboureau, the mistress of CE2 / CM1.
Thanks to this project, which began in September, many schoolchildren have discovered the forest. This is the case of Helena: “I like nature, but we don’t go there often in the woods, except for m:uguet or when I go to my uncle’s, we go for a walk the dog and we go for a walk“. This loss of the link with the forest area, Franck Mansanti remarks: “It’s true that many children today are on screens, just going for a walk, playing with leaves, taking a piece of wood, it’s essential“. Children multiply discoveries to the rhythms of various walks in the forest, they know how to differentiate the different hardwoods, and almost know how a plot of forest is managed.
But some are lucky enough to have parents or grandparents who are members of the Flogny-la-Chappelle daffodists and have “already one foot in the forest when others have never set foot there“. With this program, they will therefore all be on an equal footing, they will be able to recognize the different species of trees during their next family walks. And who knows, maybe one day they will be “in a wood commission in a municipality or else, they may work in the forest environment“, enthuses the president of the forest communes of Yonne, “even if the objective is above all to rediscover the rural world”, he points out.