On July 15, 2024, La Poste issued a stamp on the Landes Forest in the Fauna and Flora series.
As far as the eye can see, large maritime pines border the dunes of the Côte d’Argent on the Atlantic and the banks of the Garonne to the east. A territory with sandy soil, originally waterlogged in winter and dry in summer, which extends from the tip of the Médoc in the north to the meanders of the Adour in the south. The Landes de Gascogne forest is the largest artificial forest in Europe with an area of almost one million hectares spread over the departments of Landes, Gironde and Lot-et-Garonne.
It took on its contemporary appearance between the 18th and 20th centuries under the impetus of a series of innovations and political decisions which transformed its original appearance. Until then, a landscape of marshy moors subject to the movement of dunes on its coastal part and devoted to pastoralism – notably sheep breeding that the Landes shepherds supervised on stilts – it became a forest of maritime pines when, in 1857, a Imperial decree of Napoleon III calls for soil sanitation and sowing. For decades, tapping, or harvesting resin for the creation of various products such as turpentine, will constitute one of the pillars of its economic activity, but today it is mainly focused on the production of wood. work, industrial wood and wood intended for energy sectors. Stationery, chemistry or teaching complete this range of activities.
An immense forest massif, it obviously does not escape the challenges of climate change, notably the last major fires of 2022, but its ecological role is also better taken into account with management which is oriented towards the diversification of cultivation techniques and a better interweaving of economic activities in the regional and national ecosystem.
