End of Life interventions on the Bois du Rouquan

June 2013

Forestry work to improve the habitat of the Hermann’s tortoise in communal forest Vidauban (Bois du Rouquan) are completed. These management actions habitat consisted of habitat opening interventions through scrub brush and cuts from pine plantations.

To best reduce the impact of these interventions on the Hermann’s tortoise, they were made as follows:

► manuals clearings in winter
► manual cutting of trees in winter
► skidding via winch and / or iron horse in winter
► grinding of crowns on the tracks and export logs for recovery
► protection of flow zones by geotextile and spreading branches from the tree tops.

The result of these interventions is a real success in terms of environmental impact reduction while nearly 3700 trees were cut and removed (more than 200 cubic meters in total).