French Forestry Tour

How is French Forestry Tackling Challenges Emerging in the UK?
🗓️ Provisional Dates: 18–20 June 2025
📍 Tour Region: Northeast France — Meuse, Moselle & Bas-Rhin | Start & End in Strasbourg
💷 £800 + VAT per person

Last Chance to Join the French Forestry Tour organised by Maydencroft and our Green Skills Training Academy

Maydencroft invites forestry professionals to join a unique three-day forestry tour through northeastern France — designed to explore real-world strategies for tackling the challenges increasingly affecting UK woodlands.
Just a few places remain for this unique three-day tour through North-Eastern France, taking place 18–20 June, and led by forestry experts.
We’ll explore how French foresters are confronting the challenges of climate change, emerging pests and diseases, and the path to restoring resilient and biodiverse woodlands.

Led by a Maydencroft forester with over a decade of French forestry experience and hosted by local experts, this tour will cover:

🪳 Forest pests: Ips typographus & Oak Processionary Moth
🌡️ Climate impacts: Drought stress, dieback & regeneration challenges
🌲 Silvicultural adaptation: Species selection, diversification & ecological restoration
🦉 Rewilding & biodiversity: Including the lynx reintroduction programme in the Vosges

ITINERARY:
🌲 🪖 Day 1
Departing from the storybook city of Strasbourg, we will head to Verdun state forest, where the ONF (Office National des Forêts) will guide us through a landscape shaped by war and post-war reforestation.
We’ll delve into past, present, and future management, focusing particularly on harvesting and regeneration strategies in this forest heavily impacted by Ips typographus. Discussions will cover species selection, including native and exotic trees, southern provenances, and approaches such as underplanting and enrichment planting. Valuable lessons from ongoing trials will be shared.

🌳🐈‍⬛ Day 2
Departing from Nancy, we’ll head towards the German border near Sarreguemines, a region renowned for its high-quality oak forests.
Here, we’ll explore how local foresters are responding to the impacts of the Oak Processionary Moth on woodland health, timber production and public safety. We’ll also examine their strategies for managing multi-species dieback triggered by recurring droughts, and the complex task of regenerating and diversifying forest stands under mounting ecological stress.
In the afternoon, we’ll continue to La Petite Pierre, where the Parc naturel régional des Vosges du Nord will share their work to conserve the endangered lynx population. We’ll discuss efforts to promote understanding, acceptance, and sustainable coexistence between this emblematic species and human activities across the landscape.

🌲 🍇 Day 3 – Vosges Mountains & Alsace Vineyards
From the picturesque village of Obernai, nestled among the vineyards of the Rhine Valley, we will head into the Vosges highlands to see how foresters are tackling Ips typographus outbreaks and Silver fir dieback, while planning for long-term forest resilience.
The tour will conclude with a wine tasting in the stunning Alsatian countryside, between ancient castles, timber-framed villages, and the woodlands of the Vosges.

For any questions,please contact Gilles Sauvestre, Maydencroft Senior Forestry Consultant, directly at [email protected].

Cancellation policy: within 14 days of start date: 0% refund of all monies paid. Cancellation within 30 days of the start date: 50% refund. Cancellation more than 30 days before the start date: 75% refund.

Cost per person:

£800 + VAT, which includes:
Accommodation for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Breakfast and lunch for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Transfers from site to site and to the accommodation by bus.

It does NOT include:
Transportation (flight, train, car, transfers) to reach and leave Strasbourg.
Dinner (but we will offer various options at each location where we spend the night).
The hotel for Friday night.

🧭 This is a rare opportunity to gain on-the-ground insight from colleagues already facing — and responding to — the challenges now emerging across the UK forestry sector.