A passion for Trognes

On a Monday night in September 2012 we went over to La Rabiniere at Betz-le-Chateau to a book talk organised by the "Champs des Livres" association.

The author was a man passionate about "Les trognes" which is the main title of his book.
The passionate man was Dominique Mansion who founded and runs the Maison Botanique at Boursay in Loir et Cher.

I pollarded our old willows because I love trees and knew that they were old and needed a haircut...
I was also aware of the wildlife that a pollarded tree supports...
but my knowledge pales beside Dominique's!
He spoke of the history of the pollard, the reasons, the wildlife...
he spoke quietly, intensely and with burst of loud emphasis.
He was utterly captivating...
so much so that I would have bought the book afterwards...
if I hadn't already bought a copy as we went in!!

After the talk he was doing signings...
and I asked him to dedicate it to "The Pre de la Forge" as we've recently registered the main part of our land as a reserve with the LPO.
What I hadn't realised was that he would do this...

The book dedication and a quickly drawn picture
Everyone who asked for a dedication got a sketch... every one different!!

He has also brought out an "Agenda" for 2013, so I bought a copy of that too...
not to use as a diary...
but a book to record what I've been doing to and finding in the field.
His illustrations are marvelous...
both detailed where needed and beautifully freely drawn where the impression is what counts.

Agenda [or diary] for 2013

The trogne goes back to prehistory...
the oldest example of a pollard was found on the bed of the River Trent and dates to 3400 years BP [before the present]...
which makes sense as a store of shafts and rods would have been needed then as now.
Pollarding, or coppicing, may well have developed earlier than this...
as man observed the way the trees regrow after being cut....
or, as stated in this book, after beavers had been at work.

I have used the term 'trogne'...
this is a French regional word for a pollard...
and, because he was told off, as a schoolboy...
for using "patois" in an essay, when the accepted French term is tetard...
he maintained an interest in the trogne and has now documented in this wonderful work...
the history...
the reasons...
the types...
the products...
the by-products...
and the wildlife associated with pollarded trees.
Well done, that teacher!!

This year, I started the first new 'trognes' in this meadow...
which are already providing cover for birds and food for insects and their predators.
In two years time, I will make the next batch....
in three, I will recut this years...
and also the first of the old ones.

And, in the meantime, the willow species that I have planted here will become trognes...
cutting rods at waist height is much easier than coppicing.
There will be some areas of coppice though...
because as a method for harvesting wood, it supports other species and a different flora.

But...
there are trognes everywhere in this region...
in every vineyard at least one Golden Osier glows in the winter sunshine...
providing a source of flexible rods for the vignerons.
However, the old pollards...
especially the willows...
are as neglected as ours were...
loosing branches and dying slowly...
until they get grubbed out to make the landscape tidier...
removing not only the habitat they provide...
but history.

Time for a beer... Ooops, sorry!... an update...

Well, a lot of water has passed under the bridge since my last post...
but we are waiting with bated breath to see if it will continue to flow.

The view from the bridge towards the weir...

The authorities in Indre-et-Loire have decided to have a major 'clean up' of the river system to try and help the native Brown Trout [Salmo trutta fario] Truite fario and other species [eg; the Eels [Anguilla anguilla] Anguille d'Europe increase in number.

So far here this has resulted in work to the river bed of the Aigronne...
which we blogged about here and also here...
but now it is the turn of the banks [or berges] along our stretch to be fettled.
Yohann, the River Technician, wants our stretch to remain pretty much as is...
too much having been removed either side of us.
He has identified a couple of trees that will need to be dealt with...
but these can be 'tetard'ed [pollarded in English] and I have identified some others that I would like to have done...
and these will be included.

What is worrying us, however,  is what will be happening with the millstream [bief]....
there has just been a meeting with Richard, our neighbour, concerning his vanne [sluice in English] and the impedance of fish migration that it supposedly causes.
If they cannot come up with a method of helping the trout, etc. pass it...
they are talking about destroying the weir [barrage] at the end of our property.
That will leave the millstream as a series of stinking pools in the summer...
full of mozzies...
not nice at all.
Not for us, our health and our future.
It would probably mean that we would have to infill with rocks to create a dry bed in the summer...

The wier at the end of our property

Just as worrying is the fact that this will also destroy the water gradient across the meadow...
depriving the new willows and the existing vegetation of water in the summer months.
The type of vegetation that we have in the water meadow has evolved to survive in damp places...
things like the reedgrass, the Ragged Robin [Lychnis flos-cuculi] Fleur de Coucou and the Snake's-head Fritillary [Fritillaria meleagris] Fritillaire pintade....

It will also destroy history.
The bief has been in place since the 11th Century...
supplying waterpower to two mills.
The trout managed happily then...
and aren't impeded by Richard's sluice as he has it open when they are migrating anyway...
as would have been the old mill sluices.
[This to avoid damage in winter when the water is flowing at its fastest and strongest.]

The fishermen, however, to make up for the loss of native Brown Trout...
have been introducing trout...
apparently these are 'triploid' females and therefore infertile.
The native males now have a one in four chance of meeting a fertile female which.... 
surprise, surprise....
decreases their recovery still further.
The fish farms create the infertile females by giving the eggs an electric shock...
it is in their interest to create these, as people have to keep going back for more.
And they will go back for more of these...
they increase in weight far more quickly than the fertile native females!

One of two Brown Trout caught in an electrical fishing survey near our house!!

We wait!!

But not with bated breath...
not in France!!