Development and equipment

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A few notions concerning silviculture practiced by forest owners in the Aquitaine region

• The management techniques used in this cultivated forest are in large part responsible for helping prevent fires from spreading; each intervention relating to the forest stand (thinning, pruning) is usually preceded by a clearing of the undergrowth. As a result, the coppice and ground plant mass are reduced.
• Reforestation methods require ground work that equips forest areas with fire break or lesser spread zones, as they are rarely overgrown during the first 2 years. This usually involves ploughing.
• Tree pruning also helps reduce the amount of fuel and provides a vertical break between the understorey and the tree crown, keeping crown fires from spreading in seedling forests.
• Thinning and respacing help keep forests clean and clear, thus making them less combustible.
• The even-aged high forest system, adapted to the needs of this light-sensitive species and based on thinning, makes it possible to preserve the facility of penetration and maintenance.
• Drainage activities related to reforestation also help drain soils that are hardly adequate for fire-fighting vehicles during a period of the year when the extremely dry vegetation is conducive to the development of large-scale fires.

General maintenance using strips of white sand, mowing and crushing all along the SNCF Bordeaux Irun railway is organized annually by the Union Landaise de DFCI in connection with and thanks to the financing of RFF and RTE in the Landes département.