The Forests of the Périgord: A Landscape That Is Always Growing

 The Forests of the Périgord: A Landscape That Is Always Growing

Photos added later

One of the things I have noticed while traveling through the Dordogne is just how green this part of France is.

On our drives between Château Marouatte and the surrounding towns, we repeatedly disappear into stretches of woodland. Sometimes the trees crowd right up to the edge of the road, creating a dense wall of leaves and undergrowth. Then the forest suddenly opens into a meadow, farmland or a surprisingly orderly stand of trees.

Those orderly forests particularly caught my attention.

Looking through the car window, I began noticing that not all of these woods looked alike. Some appeared old and wonderfully untidy, with large spreading trees, vines climbing their trunks, fallen limbs on the ground and layers of vegetation underneath. Others consisted of tall, remarkably straight trees growing at fairly regular intervals.

Those differences tell part of the story of forestry in the Périgord.

A Heavily Forested Part of France

The Dordogne has about 418,000 hectares of forest, covering roughly 45 percent of the department. That makes it one of the most heavily forested departments in metropolitan France. About two-thirds of the forest is deciduous, including oaks and chestnuts, while roughly one-third consists of conifers such as maritime and Scots pine. 

So the forests we have been passing aren’t simply undeveloped spaces between villages. They are an important part of the landscape, ecology and economy of the Périgord.

And many of them are working forests.

The Rows of Trees

Several of my photographs show something quite different from the older mixed woodland.

The trunks are slender and unusually straight. The spacing is fairly regular. There is relatively little branching low on the trunks. Looking between the rows, you can see surprisingly far into the forest.

Those characteristics are consistent with managed tree plantations, and some of the stands in my photographs appear consistent with poplar plantations, although I would not try to identify the exact species from photographs taken through a moving car.

Poplars are particularly important in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The regional forestry organization CNPF describes poplar as an important tree of river valleys and reports that Nouvelle-Aquitaine is France’s leading poplar-producing region, with nearly 40,000 hectares. Poplar wood is particularly important for lightweight packaging and other timber products. 

That orderly appearance has a purpose. Trees intended eventually to become timber can be planted and managed to encourage tall, straight trunks. Over time a plantation can be thinned, allowing selected trees more room to develop.

Eventually comes the harvest.

Cutting a Forest Does Not Necessarily Mean Losing a Forest

This was something I wanted to understand better.

When we see a recently cut woodland from the road, it can initially look as though the forest has simply disappeared. But forestry and permanent land clearing are not the same thing.

In fact, French law distinguishes between harvesting trees while retaining the land’s forest use and défrichement, clearing that ends the property’s forest designation. The latter generally requires prior authorization. 

Dordogne also has specific rules requiring forest regeneration after certain clear cuts. In a forest massif larger than four hectares, following a clear cut of more than one hectare, the forest stand must be reconstituted within five years. That can involve replanting or, where appropriate, allowing and managing natural regeneration. 

So a bare or newly planted tract can actually represent one stage in a much longer forest cycle:

planting or natural regeneration, growth, management and thinning, maturity, harvesting, and regeneration again.

The cycle takes decades rather than seasons.

Planting the Next Forest

Dordogne actively supports reforestation and silviculture. Current programs include assistance for planting deciduous trees and several conifers, as well as support for natural regeneration of oak and chestnut woodland. 

That makes the younger stands we pass particularly interesting. What looks from the road like a collection of skinny trees may actually be someone’s investment in a forest that will not reach maturity for many years.

There is something rather remarkable about planting a tree knowing that another generation may be the one that ultimately harvests it.

And Then There Are the Wild-Looking Woods

My photographs also show the other face of the Périgord forest.

Here the trees aren’t lined up at all. Large trunks twist outward. Ivy climbs into the canopy. Saplings compete for openings in the sunlight. Fallen branches remain on the forest floor. Grass, brambles and shrubs fill every available space.

Some areas are so dense that only a few feet beyond the roadside the vegetation becomes almost impenetrable.

These forests have a completely different visual rhythm from the plantations. Instead of repetition and vertical lines, there are layers. Old trees, young trees, dead wood, vines, shrubs and ground vegetation all occupy the same space.

Oak and chestnut are especially characteristic of the region. Chestnut has a particularly long association with the Périgord, where its durable wood has traditionally been used for things such as posts, flooring and paneling. 

A Forest Under Pressure

There is another layer to this story that isn’t visible through the car window.

The forests of the Périgord are having to adapt to a changing climate. The regional natural park is already experimenting with different forestry practices and plantings to determine how forests can become more resilient. In the Périgord-Limousin park alone, forests cover about 41 percent of the territory, and an extraordinary 98 percent of that forest is privately owned. 

Dordogne officials are also concerned about declining chestnut stands and support owners who harvest deteriorating chestnut coppices and then improve or convert those areas. 

So managing these woods increasingly means thinking not only about the timber that can be harvested today, but about which trees will be capable of thriving here decades from now.

Watching the Forest Go By

Photographing all of this from a moving vehicle has produced some interesting images of its own.

In several photographs, the closest leaves and grasses dissolve into streaks of green while the deeper trees remain recognizable. The effect almost captures what it feels like to travel these little roads. The forest isn’t a static landscape. It flashes past the window in layers of light and shadow.

Then, every so often, the blur stops just long enough to reveal the pattern.

A mature tree covered in ivy.

A fallen trunk returning to the forest floor.

A sunlit clearing.

A dense wall of natural vegetation.

And then those perfectly straight ranks of young trees disappearing into the distance.

Before this trip, I might simply have looked out the window and thought, forest.

Now I find myself looking more carefully.

Is this an older woodland? Is it being managed? Has it been thinned? Are those trees deliberately planted? Is this a new generation replacing one that was harvested?

The countryside of the Périgord is not just green. It is a patchwork of forests at different ages and in different stages of their lives.

Some are being allowed to regenerate. Some are being tended. Some are approaching harvest. And somewhere, on a newly cleared piece of ground, someone is planting the trees that travelers may photograph from this same road many years from now.