Trees for Future in Hamoir

The historic arboretum of Seraing

On Tuesday 27 June, together with the DNF, we invited our Flemish forestry colleagues to discover a Trees for Future arboretum in Hamoir and the historic arboretum in Seraing. The meeting, which brought together representatives of the ANB, the bosgroepen, natuurinvest and a nurseryman, was organised as part of the Klimaatbomen project run by the KUleuven, in which the SRFB and the Bosgroep ZuydNederland are partners. The aim of the project is to draw up a list of promising species to help Flemish forests adapt to climate change.

In the Trees for Future scheme, we were able to see the remarkable growth and health of the plantations planted in 2019-2020. Atlas cedar, Bornmuller fir, Nordmann fir, Corsican pine, Koekelare pine, Scots oak and downy oak have attracted a great deal of interest. The possibilities of introducing these species under Flemish conditions were discussed. In the afternoon, at the arboretum in Seraing, we were able to see for ourselves the full potential of certain Mediterranean species such as Nordmann fir and hairy oak, and the certain degradation of North American species such as Vancouver fir.

Thank you to the DNF (Eleonore Scholzen, comptoir forestier) for helping to organise this very interesting day and thank you to the ANB for supporting this project and to the KULeuven and BGZuydNederland for involving the SRFB in this vital research for the future of French, Belgian and North-West European forests. Thank you to the participants for the extremely rewarding interactions.