Seven years after the fires, how the forest is reborn in Saint-Jean-d’Illac

It was seven years ago but the memory of the great fire of Saint-Jean-d’Illac (Gironde) remains very present in the heads. Even more when, like that day, the mayor’s phone rings to warn that a fire has broken out in the town. “There are bad memories that can resurface“, says Edouard Quintano, the mayor. “The memories of 2015 and of course the recent memories of the Girondin forest fires.”

Fortunately, this time it is only 3,000 m², quickly extinguished by the firefighters. Nothing to do with 2015, but the risk is always very present observes François Putégnat, the local president of the association for the defense of forests against fires (DFCI). “Just look at the state of the undergrowth now, with these super dry ferns“, notes the former forestry expert.

“You won’t find anything better than the maritime pine”

Noticing which area was affected by the 2015 fire is simple, just see where the young pines are. “We see that the forest will be reconstituted little by little. Nature does its work“, explains the mayor of Saint-Jean-d’Illac. Faced with injunctions to replant differently, François Putégnat defends the place of the maritime pine in the landscape. “I don’t think we’ll find anything better than maritime pine right now. It’s not the pine that burns, it’s someone who makes it burn“, defends the president of the DFCI.

“In areas that are flooded in winter, very dry in summer, it is the only tree that resists“And the biodiversity argument doesn’t hold up in his view,”if there is a grove of oak trees or a lagoon to keep, now they are kept. We hear a lot of people who all have ideal and adequate solutions. I think we have to wait a bit for hindsight, maybe sit around the table with technicians and competent people, rather than listening to certain words that may be a bit fast.”

Destroyed by 1949 fire, 1999 storm and 2015 fire

The choice of gasoline was not debated for long by Bertrand Gaulué and his wife, owners of a plot destroyed at 90% during the 2015 fire.”It was obvious to replant pine”, slice Bertrand Gaulué.

Here, however, the elements spared nothing. The disastrous fire of 1949, the storm of 1999 and the fire of 2015. Each time the pines were destroyed. “We asked ourselves the question at one point of choosing another species, but it remains the one that grows the best.“It has been five years since the young pines were replanted, they will reach their adult size in 40 years.