Préaux forest

The Préaux forest covers an area of around 10 ha. in Pays de la Loire. The area has beautiful valley landscapes with smaller, sparsely wooded patches resulting in denser bocage, mixed woodland and pasture terrain. The climate is temperate, oceanic, humid and mild, and has higher levels of rainfall than the rest of the region, more than 1.000 mm yearly.
This former farmland was afforested in the 1990s and bought by EcoTree in 2020. Our foresters manage this small forest of Sessile Oak, Ash, Wild Cherry and Black Walnut using an uneven-aged forest management plan.
Bordered by the Vaige River, the forest is also home to two ponds and abundant biodiversity.

This forest has undergone several forestry management operations since EcoTree took over the plot. In particular, thinning has been carried out on the oak plot in 2021 and 2022 to allow the best trees to grow to their full potential. The forest is growing with no particular problems, and our teams are ensuring its upkeep over the years.
In 2023, we are setting up an educational trail to give the public a better understanding of the forest's history, its trees and the local flora and fauna.

In 2021, our teams, with the help of GENIE, an association that helps local unemployed reintegrate into society, will carry out a lengthy project to remove plastic sheeting from the oak forest. These tarps, placed on the ground when previous owners planted the trees in the 90s, prevented the soil from breathing and biodiversity from developing.
That same year, we studied the possibility of planting a flower meadow. We restored a 200m² woodland pond and created another pond of around 300 m². Lastly, we monitored the bat population and made and installed nesting boxes in early 2023 to provide a habitat for chiropterans. We've marked several den trees that will act as biodiversity hubs.
We also installed around fifteen beehives in the forest, which a local beekeeper maintains.
The biodiversity team plans to carry out other projects in the forest over the coming years, including monitoring amphibians and odonates in the ponds, conducting an inventory of chiropterans, and obtaining the Territoire Faune Sauvage label for the forest.