Pont-de-Buis forest

The Pont-de-Buis forest is located between Quimper and Brest in the heart of the regional parc ‘Parc Naturel Régional d’Armorique’ in Brittany. The area profits from more than 1.000 mm of yearly rain.
This forest used to be agricultural land but is planted with Chestnut, Red Oak, Beech, Douglas fir, and Atlas cedar. We have also preserved an acidophilic Beech forest with Holly rich in biodiversity.

Once we took over the management of this forest, we cut down the Chestnuts to prevent them from dominating the EU habitats, a directive protecting European animal and plant species, which are endangered, vulnerable, rare and endemic. We cleared up the acidophilic Beech forest with Holly to promote and improve biodiversity.

Afterwards, we worked on enhancing the soil quality in the area without any trees in 2021 and proceeded to plant Atlas Cedar, Redwood, Douglas Fyr, and Chestnut.

In 2022, we applied Trico to trees, a repellent from sheep's fat, to prevent the game from feeding on the saplings. Not all saplings survive once planted, so we replanted where necessary. In 2023, we also replanted the area with Red oak. We will monitor the forest's progress in the upcoming years and replant when necessary.

The storm Ciaran damaged the fores severely in November 2023, where more than 1.5 hectares of tree stand, which we had chosen to preserve, were damaged and fell. We removed those trees in the autumn of 2025 and commenced a replanting of trees such as Douglas fir and Chestnut.

We weeded out the acidophilic Beech forest with Holly in 2021 to help promote the rich biodiversity in the area. As we advance, we will keep monitoring the EU Directive habitats.