A young forest

The forest that you can admire today is quite young: it is barely a century old. Until the early 20th century, the Roc de Chère consisted of open, largely cultivated landscapes ( cereals, vines, pastures, hay meadows). It was only after the 1st World War, with the depopulation of the countryside leading to the abandonment of many agricultural plots, that the area gradually grew back into woodland. Today, farmers, shepherds and lumberjacks are being replaced by hikers, geologists and botanists: alternative approaches and different ways of looking at landscapes and natural environments...