In the forest of Bercé (Sarthe), the oaks fly to preserve the land

At the end of a deforested plot, not far from a forest road, an operator fixes a cable to the trunk of a freshly cut oak tree. Then a trolley pulls the huge log weighing several tons, along a 400 meter long cable, perpendicular to the road.

Raised from the ground, the log is towed with a deafening noise before falling to the side of the road, at the foot of the cable mast.

Usually used in the mountains, the cable skidding technique made its appearance this winter in the Bercé forest, renowned for its exceptional oak trees.

"sensitive soils"

"We are democratizing cable skidding in lowland forests on sensitive soils", underlines Brice Gaumont, territorial forestry technician at the National Forestry Office (ONF).

"Currently it is raining, the soils are a little waterlogged, this technique is suitable not to damage the soils and compact them", he adds.

At the end of winter, skidding by forest tractor is impossible, except to cause serious degradation of the soil.

"Soil that is compacted is no longer arable, you can no longer make a forest on compacted soil", explains the forestry technician. Such a soil "will take tens, hundreds, thousands of years to restructure itself to be arable again and facilitate the penetrability of the roots in the ground".

However, "our livelihood is the forest. The forest if we want it to grow, we must not damage our soil", confesses Mr. Gaumont.

And then in this wet area, "the machines would get bogged down easily", points out Thierry Brun, cable installer from Puy-de-Dôme with his big gray beard.

"test sites"

On the other hand, waiting for summer to skid can have consequences on the quality of the wood, and therefore on its price, for logs which sell for up to 15.000 euros and several of which have been sent to the Notre-Dame reconstruction site. Dame-de-Paris.

"Insects will lay their larvae in the wood, make galleries and damage it. The fungi develop and this affects the quality of the wood", describes the forestry technician.

The stakes are all the greater in Bercé, a forest renowned for its oak forests, some of which are over 200 years old.

Already experienced in the Forêt du Gâvre (Loire-Atlantique) and Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier (Ille-et-Vilaine), cable skidding remains reserved for sensitive areas on the plain.

"These are test sites", explains Bruno Cochet, head of the Brittany and Pays de la Loire wood service at the ONF. "It is interesting to maintain the profession of cable operator, a network of specialized contractors who cannot work in winter because there is snow".

He confirms that the technique "is developing in the western half of France whereas (it) was extremely rare before".