I present you … the emperor.
45 meters high,
4 meters in circumference,
impressive, is not it?
He is 250 years old.
It means that this tree is born
before the French Revolution.
He is 35 years old
when Beethoven composes “The Hymn to Joy”,
100 years
during the Paris World Fair,
200 years
when writing
of the Universal Declaration
human rights.
It overlooks the hundred hectares
of a forest that I manage.
Imagine for a moment:
since his seed germinated,
he has known a thousand seasons.
250 times the spring sweetness,
then the heat,
summer drought.
250 times,
he saw his friends, the beeches,
lose their leaves,
then the rigor of winter,
the wind, the cold, the snow.
In fact,
in my job as a forest manager,
I have a relationship to time
a little bit different
of most of you.
When I cut a tree that is 200 years old,
I visualize the gap,
the clearing that this will create,
the seeds that will germinate, grow, grow,
and become trees.
I visualize my action
at the scale of a tree
and the forest massif,
but above all,
I am brought to work my length of sight.
What makes these seeds,
once become trees,
will compose the forest of tomorrow?
I predict my actions,
my interventions in a management plan,
a plan of life, if you prefer.
At 1 year, 5 years, 30 years, 100 years!
My horizon is the century.
What does this tell me?
It is first of all humility,
intellectual honesty.
I do not cheat with time.
I can not shoot the tree to grow faster.
I have to deal with an existing
that nature and foresters
have forged over the centuries before me.
My action is to continue this work
for centuries to come,
while providing the man with the wood he needs.
And my responsibility, when making my choices,
is to respect the history of each forest.
What will be useful to him?
What will galvanize his collective strength?
Because a forest,
it is primarily a society.
It’s a tree, more a tree, more a tree …
exactly as the drops of water make the big rivers, the rivers,
then the oceans.
Each tree brings what it can and takes what it needs.
No more no less.
The immobility of the trees suggests that they are inactive,
while they are in permanent action.
They stretch their leaves, their branches, their tops,
to the light at every moment.
They capture the smallest photon,
they capture every drop of water to grow,
and strengthen their roots and trunk.
Each tree is useful in its own way.
One brings shading,
the other its protection against the wind,
this one his leaves for humus,
this one has its roots to capture the water deeply.
All produce oxygen,
clean up the air,
purify the water,
fix the floors,
regulate the climate,
produce fruits, wood,
and participate in the balance of the forest and the world.
Everyone brings what he can.
But the tree does not constitute the forest.
It is part of the stand.
He brings his will,
his vital drive …
In my daily life,
I found that the strength of a forest
is in symbiosis.
An intimate and lasting association between individuals,
a community of interest if you prefer.
I could see how the trees are synergistic:
the little beeches grow under the cover of old fir trees,
and the little firs grow under the cover of old beeches.
But there are also relations of competition, competition,
from the youngest age,
to finally find their place
from dominant or dominated to adulthood
in the stand.
Then, these reports slide towards phenomena of interaction,
cooperation.
Dominants then protect the dominated.
The dominated ensure the stability of the stand against the wind.
Me, what I could see,
is that the strength of a forest is not in uniformity,
but in diversity.
So, with a century for horizon,
what will be my actions to promote this symbiosis?
Here, I made a cut
and its light allowed the seeds to sprout.
Elsewhere, I made a thinning
and this has strengthened the trunk of the trees against the wind.
Elsewhere, I selected trees
to produce lumber.
It may seem surprising,
but when we cut a tree,
we are increasing the overall potential of the forest.
For each action, I chose
who to keep, who to fall.
This forces me to take a major step back in my decisions.
I must constantly sharpen my sense of observation,
see the forest as a whole,
and learn how it works.
The forest is my school of life.
She helped me
and helps me to better understand the world …
and myself sometimes too.
Me, I see routes of human life.
Some seeds have sprouted away from their parents.
They are light.
The wind, the birds took them away.
They are frugal,
are satisfied with little richness in the soil,
to develop
and create some shading
to their children and create a new community.
Other seeds, heavier,
fall at the feet of their parents
and grow in their lap.
protected
and, at the same time, under a guardianship that requires them
to make their way between the parental branches
to go find the light.
When I see the size of a seed,
and with a little earth, water and light,
that’s it:
It is magic !
It’s fascinating !
We are like these seeds:
we have a giant potential in us,
and they show us that it takes little to do great things.
A goal: to capture the light,
and the enthusiasm to go farther, higher,
every day,
for a thousand seasons!
So what about my goal?
What is my life plan?
What will make my actions benefit others,
to our future and that of our children?
For me, life before,
it was finding a balance in alternation
between enjoying and working.
Two elements for me, opposed, contrary!
To enjoy is to burn the candle at both ends,
to have fun … the fury of living.
While working, it’s tedious,
it is laborious,
it’s not very exciting!
The tree showed me a third voice:
to build.
I can have a blossoming,
I can have an accomplishment
in the construction, even partial, of a work larger than me,
and that I will not see finished.
Every day,
I know that my action brings me enthusiasm,
because it is part of something that is both natural,
but also huge!
Go see the trees!
Let yourself be carried away by their majesty,
by this feeling of eternity that they release,
this calm and determined energy.
Look at their diversity and complementarity.
And me, and you,
like the emperor and his friends, the beeches,
what are we building?
What is our goal ?
What is our life plan so?
With a century for horizon,
let’s be trees!
Together, let’s be a forest!
Thank you.
(Applause)
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