The city of Rochefort in Charente-Maritime puts a price on its trees

"Recently, a local resident felt that three ash trees were bothering him in front of his house, so he cut them down," told an AFP correspondent Christèle Morin, deputy LR mayor of Rochefort Hervé Blanché, in charge of green spaces.

"In a park, young people had fun tearing off the bark. Sometimes it's earthworks that destroy the root system. But trees are life, they make us breathe! People have forgotten this phenomenon and treat them like street furniture,” she laments.

To fight against these degradations, the municipal service that she directs is currently calculating their financial value. Thus the majestic beech tree which overlooks the marina of the birthplace of the ship L'Hermione has just been estimated at 26.000 euros. The thirty plane trees that line the Boulevard de la Résistance are now worth between 6 and 10.000 euros each. The 11.000 trees in the city will all be estimated.

"We apply the 'tree scale' developed by the National Technical Center for Green Spaces and Nature in the City Plante et Cité, the Council for Architecture, Urbanism and the Environment (CAUE) of Seine- et-Marne et Copalme" (association of arborists, pruners and climbers), explains Christèle Morin.

"The law ignores the tree"

This scale is based on two concepts. The "Integral evaluated value" of the tree, expressed in euros, integrates the age, the dimensions, the species, the remarkable character or not of the tree and its landscape environment.

Then a second calculation is made to define the "Damage assessment scale" caused to the tree, which makes it possible to estimate the damage in the event of damage. An amount to which are added "the cost of the hours of intervention of the agents and the rental of the equipment", underlines Eric Bourdajaud, director of the Rochefortais green spaces.

This double scale of the tree has been available on the eponymous website for two years, but such calculation methods existed long before.

"The first are the result of associations or communities. They date back to the 1960s, explains François Freytet, member of Copalme and co-creator of this "modernized tool, more accessible and which is part of a set of provisions for the protection of the environment. 'existing tree'.

In addition to Rochefort, a port of some 25.000 inhabitants, more than 640 cities have adopted the scale of the tree to protect urban vegetation that is regularly abused. The website baremedelarbre.fr identifies users such as the municipalities of Lyon, Grenoble, Nancy, Orléans and the National Forestry Office (ONF).

The insurance companies do not officially recognize it but "we have no return from an insurance company that refuses it", indicates François Freytet.

"On the other hand, he adds, the law ignores the tree, in particular for the benefit of private property. Discussions are underway to take it into account".