Forests of the Périgord: ‘A peasant forest’.

Autumn colors the forest today and same area on 1910 postcard.

Humans have shaped the landscape for centuries to suit their needs and way of life. As late as 2001 the Périgordian forest was caricatured as: ‘Une forêt privée, morcelée, essentiellement paysanne.’, resonating 1970’s government’s concerns about the ‘lack of a forestry spirit’. ‘Peasants hardly think to maintain forests’, ‘bear little interest in it’, see it as ‘part of landscape’ but do not tread it like a ‘real resource’.

Oak is great for firewood and fencing poles.

The forest continued to provide the litter and nourishment for a flocks of pigs (acorns), firewood, lumber and materials for building and agricultural uses like fencing poles and stakes. It continues to support hunter-gather attitudes: hunting for deer and wild boar, picking mushrooms, gathering truffles. It is a relatively liquid source of cash: wood harvested or the sale of a parcel allows for the purchase of agricultural equipment and helps to keep afloat deficit agricultural holdings.

The forest provides berries, nuts and mushrooms.

The Dordogne department might be characterized as ‘forested’ (about half the land area is under forest cover), but hardly supports any ‘forestry’. With over a 100,000 forest owners, 99% of the forest of the department belongs to natural persons (not corporations), resulting in an average size of less than four hectares per owner. There are only 3 very large properties (> 400 ha). This fragmentation is the result of sharing inheritances and the sale of small plots to city dwellers for whom it is a ‘privileged natural environment’.

The forge at Savignac-Ledrier.

Ruins of (pre)industrial forges dot the landscape. These often used streams to power the high furnish blower and charcoal as fuel. Operated during the winter season, they made use of surplus agriculture labor. The introduction of (fossil) coal to power and fuel larger industries that would produce permanently, moved production towards the north. As a result charcoal production halted, and forests just grew.

Half the land under forest, but hardly any ‘forestry’.

The Périgord landscape is now more forested (thicker and more closed) than ever in recorded history. This closure occurred at the expense of ‘marginal spaces’ that were neglected or fell prey to the utilitarian productivity drive of the 1960s/70s, to give ‘marginal’ or ‘wastelands’ new uses (‘waste’ as in ‘wasted’ because not optimally used). Compartmentalization of management (specialized forestry and agriculture departments), and even within agriculture a move away of ‘mixed holdings’ combining animal husbandry and cultivation.

Very different forest-types found at close distance.

Paradoxically this increase in forest cover supports lesser biodiversity due to a decreased in the diversity of forest structures. This has also an effect on the fauna Animals preferring open vegetation types (like the hare) decrease, whiles forest species (like deer) increase. Find out more about the landscape, history, vegetation, the villages and life on the causse:

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