A scorched southwestern France braces itself for fires to come
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[March 25, 2023]
By Juliette Jabkhiro and Stephane Mahe
HOSTENS, France (Reuters) - As France frets about an extended drought
and prospects for more wildfires in another long summer, one blaze that
erupted eight months ago in the southwest of the country still smoulders
away underground.
Columns of white, acrid smoke rise from a forest floor outside the town
of Hostens in the Gironde region, south of Bordeaux. The smell of
burning tyres is caused by the brown coal in the area's peaty soil which
is fuelling the fire underground.
"It's been burning since mid-July," said Guillaume Carnir, who works for
France’s National Forest Agency (ONF). "To this date, we don't have a
clear answer as to how to stop it."
The blaze at Hostens is a remnant of huge wildfires that ravaged
southern Europe last summer when the worst drought on record was
compounded by successive heatwaves which scientists say are consistent
with climate change.
The Gironde region was particularly badly hit with 20,000 hectares of
forest destroyed, and the risk of renewed fires is a great concern.
"All the greenery will come back in the spring, which will be flammable,
so we have to make sure new fires can't start from these hot spots,"
Carnir said.
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Pascale Got, a local official in charge of environmental protection,
said that the fire at Hostens was under constant surveillance from
drones measuring heat levels.
When it comes to wildfires risk, she said that prevention was crucial,
as well as swift intervention when a fire first starts, which is easier
to do from above.
"It is obvious that we need an urgent answer from the government on air
assets," said Got.
The interior ministry said measures for fighting forest fires across
France will be presented in the coming weeks.
An unusually dry winter across parts of the south of the European
continent has reduced moisture in the soil and raised fears of a repeat
of 2022, when 785,000 hectares were destroyed in Europe - more than
double the annual average for the past 16 years, according to European
Commission (EC) statistics.
Governments are thus working out how to make forests and woodlands more
resilient to climate change with better scrub clearance, more hardwood
trees that burn less easily and other steps to prevent the region
becoming an inferno every year.
The risk from failure to act is collapsing soils, falling trees and the
prospect of an endless cycle of increasingly uncontrollable fires that
have not only devastated natural habitats but also destroyed homes and
businesses.
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Spain's first major wildfire of the year raged in the eastern Valencia
region on Friday, destroying more than 3,000 hectares of forest and
forcing 1,500 residents to abandon their homes, authorities said.
LUNAR LANDSCAPE
In Gironde, the wildfires that surrounded the town of Origne and
displaced its inhabitants for two weeks last July are long extinguished.
Firefighters managed to save all but one house, yet some scars remain.
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![](../images/032523PIX/news_a32.jpg)
A view shows a forest parcel from which
trees burned by the last summer's wildfires have been removed, in
Landiras, in the Gironde region, France, March 20, 2023. REUTERS/Stephane
Mahe
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"It's no longer the village I knew: there were woods, we could hike,
it was wonderful," said Bernard Morlot, 79, who told Reuters he was
thinking of moving away. "Now, it's the desert. It looks like the
moon, it's dreadful."
Mayor Vincent Dedieu, 46, could not hide his sadness while looking
at the wide empty land punctuated with piles of cut trees right
outside the village.
"It will take at least 15 years to get back to a normal landscape,"
he said.
Dedieu added that he felt powerless and abandoned by authorities
since the disaster: "We need to rebuild our roads and our pathways,"
he said. "It's going to be exceptionally costly, and so far we have
zero."
From officials to wood workers, everyone agreed that clear pathways
and firebreaks in forests are key to slowing down wildfires.
"The better the forest is looked after, the lower the fire stays,"
said Pierre Berges, 53, a private forest manager at local business
Planfor.
For months now, Berges has been busy salvaging what he could from
forests ravaged by wildfires. Below the charred bark of burnt trees,
some wood is still in good condition and businesses like Planfor
have been converting it into lumber, timber and fuel.
FOREST OF THE FUTURE?
When it comes to reforesting, burned patches will only be replanted
next year. Some experts suggest that diversifying varieties of trees
would make the forest more resilient.
But in private parcels, the economical incentive is to plant pine,
that will rapidly grow into marketable wood.
"The maritime pine is a champion in all categories in terms of wood
production, and even adaptation to the environment we have, with the
strong variations in drought, the very draining soils," explained
ONF agent Carnir.
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But he said that shouldn't stop forest actors from bringing in a
diversity that will help protect the forest from parasites and risks
of fire spreading.
For the past few years, there has been a push for planting more
hardwood trees, such as oak or birch. Jean-Marc Bonedeau, head of
Planfor nursery, told Reuters over the phone that he has seen a drop
of "classic" forest varieties in orders, not in volume but in
proportion:
"Maritime pine used to make 70% of our production four or five years
ago, now it's only 45%," Bonedeau said.
But finding seeds might become a challenge. "Climate change impacts
the tree's ability to bear fruit," Bonedeau said.
(Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro and Stephane Mahe; Writing by
Juliette Jabkhiro; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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