Reconstructing ancient timber supply practices of an ancient and mature forest (Gavarnie-Gèdre, Pyrénées, France)

Ancient and Mature Forests (AMFs) represent only a tinyfraction of Europe's forests. However, these forests are hometo a unique biodiversity, thanks to a wide variety of habitats anda high degree of naturalness. These AMFs’ ecosystem qualities,resulting from long periods without human intervention, do notmean that AMFs have not been exploited or managed in thepast before being designated as subnatural forests. In thisstudy, we want to explore what role did AMFs play in providingtimber for past local construction? In the framework of theBendys project, which aims to study the past trajectories ofEuropean subnatural fir and beech forests, we applied apluridisciplinary approach to reconstruct long-term forestrypractices since the 16th century in Barrada AMFs located onthe northern slope of the Pyrenees (Gavarnie-Gèdre, Haute-Pyrénées, France).
We combined dendrochronological analysis of lumber fromtwo buildings adjacent to the forest of Barrada and 11 fromother parts of the locality (Fig. 1), as well as living trees incurrent stands in the heart of the fir-dominated forest ofBarrada, with historical study of local archives.We compared indicators of forest practices and managementobtained from dendrochronological analyses (cross-dating (Fig.2), growth profiles, and opening phases (Fig. 3)) with historicaldata. We reconstructed some probable exploitation phases ofthe Barrada forest and the surrounding fir forests, while thehistorical results show that the forest is essentially pastoral butalso reveal the occasional harvesting of wood for localconstruction.