The Landes de Gascogne forest
The Eurosol campsite is located in the Landes forest, which spans three départements: Landes, Gironde and Lot-et-Garonne. With almost a million hectares of forest, it is Europe’s largest cultivated forest, and its history is just as impressive.
History of the Landes forest
At the root of this pharaonic project are two issues specific to the region. Before the 19th century, the Landes region had to contend with a constant advance of sand several tens of meters per year across the land. Added to this was the difficulty of draining rainwater from the flat, sandy soil, leading to the development of mosquitoes and numerous diseases such as malaria.
To counteract these effects, the first companies started up in the 18th century. Following his own observations, Chambrelent, a civil engineer, came up with the idea of planting maritime pine seeds on a marshy plot of land. Success was not long in coming, and the number of hectares rehabilitated multiplied over time. In view of the results obtained, Napoleon III subsequently decided to pass a law to seed the region. It would be several decades before the dunes were fixed by oyat and the swamps reclaimed by the forest.
A strong economic impact
This new forest had beneficial effects on the local economy. In the first instance, thanks to gemmage, which consists in recovering the resin from pine trees. This work helped to make the ships watertight and to maintain the ropes. Later, the resin was used as turpentine in the manufacture of various products such as paint and varnish.
In the twentieth century, resin was abandoned in favor of wood, which was used to make poles in French and English mines.
In the twenties, a new economy was born: Papeteries de Gascogne, based in Mimizan. Their success is such that they are still the market leader in kraft papers today.