ERNEST GUINIER (1837-1908) : UN FORESTIER ÉCLECTIQUE ET VISIONNAIRE

This forester who died a hundred years ago spent his entire career in the Alps and the Pyrenees. He contributed to lively debates on forestry from 1875 to 1900 through numerous publications that dealt with a broad range of subjects among which we have selected those that are still considered new. In 1899, he described a silvicultural system where trees are “individually selected” to be “free on all sides”. This is recognizable as the qualification-growth technique developed in Germany at the end of the 20th century. In 1901, he was concerned by “hybridization” between the Mountain pines in the Alps and those in the Pyrenees at a time when major reforestation work involving exchanges of provenances was occurring. This concern has only recently come to the fore. Setting aside the quarrels about even-aged versus selection forests, his very pragmatic “versatile method” devised in 1879 strongly resembles the silvicultural systems currently recommended for upland coniferous forests. In 1901, he expresses indignation about the fact that 40 years previously the last primary forest in the Alps had been clear-cut. The movement in favour of preserving “ancient forests” is highly topical. These four ideas are the outcome of close observation by a naturalist and ecologically supported arguments.