THE FOREST POLICY OF FRANCE— ITS VINDICATION 



1383 



private forests are found in tlie severe fines which are im- 

 posd if the destruction of a forest actually takes place, 

 without warrant, and in the discretion of the Minister 

 to order the reforestation of the land by planting. If 

 this is not done by the owner within three years, it may 

 be done by the state at the owner's cost. It makes no 

 difference whether the denudation was intentional or not. 

 The penalties are applicable if a forest actually disap- 

 pears as the result of severe cutting or grazing. 



These restrictive measures constitute but one phase of 

 the forest policy of France. Its constructive features 

 are equally striking. Foremost among them in com- 

 manding the admiration of the forest engineers in the 

 American Army stands the conquest of the sand dunes on 



pine under a cover of brush or herbaceous plants. Their 

 success led to the adoption in 1810 of a systematic plan 

 for controlling the dunes by the French government. 

 State forests were established in part of the territory ; but 

 much of the planting was done on communal and private 

 lands, under the principle of the state's paying the costs 

 and then retaining the use of the land for a sufficient 

 period to recoup itself from the forests established. 



The stabilization of the dune belt was actually accom- 

 plished in about sixty years, but the impetus given to the 

 planting of maritime pine by private owners and com- 

 munes has extended the forests of this valuable tree over 

 almost the entire area of sand plains in southwestern 

 France. The departments of the Landes and Gironde 



1^-^:^ 





Underwood ,tiu! Uiidtrwood — British Official Photograph 



GERMAN TRENCHES .SMA.SUED I'l' BV BRITISH GUN FIRE IN THE BATTLE OF FLANDERS. THIS GIVES AN IDEA OF THE AMOUNT 



OF TIMBER USED IN FIELD FORTIFICATIONS 



the southwestern coast and the conversion of the old bed 

 of the Atlantic Ocean, formerly a thinly populated 

 stretch of sand and marsh, into one of the most produc- 

 tive regions of France. Adjoining the South Atlantic 

 Coast, is a belt of sand dunes covering some 350,000 

 acres. During the 18th century, the inland movement of 

 these dunes, which traveled from 30 to 80 feet a year, 

 buried entire villages and farms and threatened to, de- 

 stroy the economic life of the entire littoral. Experi- 

 ments were begun by French engineers as early as 1784 

 in stabilizing the dunes by sowing the seed of maritime 



contain today 1,500,000 acres of private forests, by far 

 the greater part of which were established by planting. 

 The forests of this region, created almost wholly by hu- 

 man foresight and patience, contained nearly a fourth of 

 the timber of France at the outbreak of the war and were 

 one of the most important sources of supply for the 

 French, British and American Armies. The 20th Engi- 

 neers cut ties and sawlogs from state forests in the dunes 

 themselves which, sixty years previously, were not only 

 wholly unproductive but a menace to the country. And 

 aside from the production of timber, the afforestation of 



