Description:

Replant of resistant trees on the banks of Canal du Midi will start in the Aude by the end of 2011.

 

It was in 2006, near the village of Villedubert that the first outbreak of canker stain was found along the Canal du Midi and the first hundred planes were logged. And since then, this fungus that kills old trees  in less than five years, has grown steadily, especially in the Aude and Herault departments.

According to a spokesman of the Waterways of France (VNF), which manages the site , 1388 trees were contaminated  between 2006 and 2010,and in 2010 alone, 153 new homes were identified , or 788 plane trees hit.


Faced with this problem, VNF has only one solution: cut down the diseased trees. Up till now, more than 2,000 plane trees have already been cut, a total of about 42 000 are going down, disfiguring some landscapes.

But a replanting program is being developed. The French state and the Midi-Pyrenees and Languedoc-Roussillon regions, funded a study on the proposed replanting. VNF issued its copy to the Ministry of Environment in September 2010. But the high commission of Sites and Landscapes asked further study to respect the image of the canal and its universal value.

 
Specific requirements should be included in the specifications, such as respect of the double alignment and a minimum distance of 7 to 8 meters between each tree, and giving a pleasant shade,an obligation.
These criteria are imposed to preserve the UNESCO World Heritage designation. The tender is in progress. The results of this study should be presented further by the end of the year in order to obtain permission to start replanting next year.
Parallel to this overall project, two projects have already been approved and will be launched by the end of this year. The first  is Villedubert, where ash trees will replace the plane trees . The second in Trèbes, which will be planted with platanors , a new specimen, resistant to canker stain.


The management of the Canal du Midi, a state property, has been entrusted to VNF. Like any UNESCO world heritage site, it is subject to regular checks. Every 10 years, the VNF must submit to a monitoring exercise, the next  will be in the fall of 2012. The report  should include a summary of what has been done to maintaining the site.

The VNF does not fear a "downgrade" of the site , as culling the trees is the only option the stop the fungus.
In 2012 ,the UNESCO will not judge the appearance of the site ,but take into account the measures that has been taken to preserve it,including the efforts  made by the French state.

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