The Grand Est Region supports the forestry and wood industry

The Grand Est Region supports the forestry and wood industry

On the occasion of the Permanent Commission of November 19, 2021, the Region voted to support several projects in an agro-ecological, technological and digital transition.

Storage areas for better preservation of logs.

Weather conditions in 2018 and 2019 caused an explosion of bark beetles in spruce, resulting in the dieback of several hundred thousand trees. The Grand Est Region encourages and supports projects to create storage areas to store wood before it becomes infected, and then to preserve the logs for up to five years before using them. Seven storage areas with a total capacity of 123,800m3 are benefiting from regional aid of nearly 2.5 million euros.

Modernize forestry operations

Regional aid of nearly 558,000 euros has been allocated to support four forest service projects and fourteen forestry and silviculture company modernization projects. Objective: to optimize the mobilization of wood in the forest as part of a sustainable management approach (limiting the movement of machinery in the plots, reducing skidding distances, setting up concerted work sites, etc.), but also the accessibility to the plots as part of the reconstitution or improvement of wooded stands.

In order to modernize forestry companies, the Region provides assistance for harvesting and silviculture investments. It thus makes it possible to improve the technical and environmental performance of tools and to increase the capacity to mobilize wood and carry out silvicultural work.

Support research and innovation

The Region has also allocated more than 310,000 euros to support nine industry projects dealing with issues related to climate change with the implementation or adaptation of tools and practices. For example:

• the realization of a collection of prescriptions concerning the conservation of wood after storms, a reference for the current and future storage of wood;
• the development of an experimentation of treatments by autoclave of the fir tree to help the professionals of the sector to better develop it in outside;

Under the Poplar Plan:

• the realization of tests of conservation of seedlings in the cold and technical tutorials adapted to the Grand Est, with the aim of improving the quality of poplar wood and the transmission of technical information to nurserymen, forestry and silvicultural companies;
• the realization of a technical document concerning the choice of the species to be implanted on the scale of the Vosges massif.

The “Merci le peuplier” Charter

The regional policy in favor of the forestry-wood industry is based on the contract and the program of this industry in which the regional support to the Poplar Plan is included. In this context, the Grand Est finances eleven poplar replanting projects to the tune of 11,300 euros via the “Merci le peuplier” charter (the Region provides an additional 2.50 euros per plant).

The Poplar Plan 2021-2026 aims to structure an efficient, innovative and job-creating industry. It includes reforestation and pruning to improve their quality and local value.

Supporting investment in primary wood processing companies

Four companies of first transformation of wood, have also benefited from an aid of more than 176 000 euros for various investments of the future.