Forest of Look after - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

The forest of Look after (delivery, Zoniënwoud in Dutch, German Zonienwald in ) is a forest périurbaine, located at the South-eastern of Brussels, in the central part of the Belgium. Its main feature is to be made up with nearly 80% of plantations to Hêtre S, which the mature standing timbers one makes call the hêtraie cathedral .

The current surface of the forest of Look after itself, vestige of an extent which covered a good part of the the Brabant, is of 4383 Hectare S, which one can extend to approximately 5000 hectares if one includes others there contiguous public wooded extents which formed part in the past of it. Among those, the Bois of Cambers ( Ter Kamerenbos , in Dutch) which is inserted in the middle of the city, the wood of the Capuchins where is installed the Arboretum de Tervuren, the Parc Tournay-Solvay, the Domaine Solvay of Hulpe, the wood of Tervuren and the field of the Red-Cloister ( Rood-Klooster , in Dutch).

History

After the last Glacial period (- 10.000 years), the vegetation evolves slowly with the stabilization of the climate of the type Toundra to the forest type. Archaeological traces of establishment human, stone axes, arrowheads, scrapers, strikers, as well as spherical vases with widened collar (royal Museums of art and history) going back to 3000 to 2200 years before J. - C. were discovered between the small valley of the Drowned Children ( Vallei van of Verdronken Kinderen in Dutch, name due to a translation of family name Verdoncken , drowned Dutch , a family of millers) and the small valley of Vuylbeek ( Vallei van of Vuilbeek in Dutch, Vuylbeek according to the old standards oforthography Dutchwoman). At that time, the forest extended on most of the Western Europe. tumuli (high ground hillocks above a tomb) undoubtedly built during the first millenium before J. - C. are visible. During the first centuries of the Christian era, the forest starts to be exploited: one takes there wood, fruits and game; it becomes coal (Carbonaria silva): one manufactures there the Charcoal necessary to the work of metals. In the neighborhoods of the year millet, the forest of Look after (whose etymology would be related to the Celtic name Senne, “senna” or “sunnia”, water calms), becomes property of hunting of the counts de Louvain, who will become Ducs of the Brabant, and their heirs. It is thanks to that, that it has partly escaped with the clearing and reached us. Several Abbey monastic S or communities, receives the authorization to settle there.

At the time of the emperor Charles Quint, his surface covers 20.000 more hectares. Beside its function of hunting ground, an exploitation of more systematic wood starts, one practices the white cut, portions out after piece, and have lets then the forest be regenerated. During the periods disturbed of 16th and 17th century, the forest is overexploited and does not renew itself naturally any more; its surface is reduced.

It is during the Austrian period (1714 - 1795), that the afforestation starts with the systematic plantation of beeches what radically changes the aspect of the forest hitherto a41dernier $c-b1, e,10 $c-b26 ce $c-b16 $c-b43, bn,84 made up of a mixture of leafy trees. The oldest groves go back to this period. French period (1795 - 1814) the forest code and the plantations go back to oaks. In 1822, under the Dutch mode, then of 1831 with 1836 during the first years of the Belgian State, whereas it belongs to the General society of Belgium most of the forest is put on sale public. The forest loses the 3/5e its surface passing from 11.500 to 4.694 hectares. The main part of the sold grounds is cleared by the new private owners. A part constitutes today the field of Argenteuil, the Domaine Solvay or the field of the arboretum of Tervuren. The remaining forest is repurchased in 1843 by the Belgian State. This surface will be still cut down by creation by roads, of Railroad and two Hippodrome S.

Monuments and buildings

the three Fountains ( Drie fonteinen in Dutch) (Auderghem): At this place, at the time not very sure, the duke Jean III of the Brabant made build in 1323 a strengthened refuge surrounded by ditches and flanked of a keep and a vault. At the beginning of the 15th century after the addition of a new building the small one extremely became the residence of the Gruyer , the officer charged to take care on the hunting ground of the dukes. The poachers were locked up there and a small garrison had its districts there. In 1584, a fire destroyed the keep which was rebuilt. The current building goes back to this time. The keep and the other buildings were destroyed at the beginning of the 19th century.

Memorial with the foresters ( Boswachtersmonument in Dutch) (Uccle): This monument, composed of a Dolmen surrounded by a circle of eleven drawn up stones was set up in 1920 in remembering eleven foresters killed at the time of the First World War.

Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Welriekende ( Notre-Dame de Bonne Odor , in French) (Hoeilaart): In 1485, the canon of the abbey of Groenendael, made build a vault dedicated to Notre-Dame de Bonne Odor , then called upon to fight the fevers. After having crossed centuries and wars and escaped with the Iconoclast S, it was destroyed in 1864 to be inopportunely on the way envisaged of the road of Midsummer's Day Mount. Rebuilt hundred meters further, it is always a place of pilgrimage.

Management and economy

During the regionalization of 1984, the surface of the forest and its management were distributed between the three areas of the country: 56% are managed by the Flemish Région, 38% by the Région of Brussels-Capital and 6% by the Walloon region, the 347 hectares of the Bois of the Capuchins being managed by the royal Donation. This situation was not without posing many problems as for the coherence of the policies of the regulations and indication. Since 2003, an independent platform is installation to try to facilitate the communication between the various managers and users. Localization of the forest in edge of a big city in fact a place very attended by the walkers, with foot, horse or bicycles and an adventure playground for the youth movements. She is regarded as the green lung of Brussels. 1657 ha managed by Brussels Environment - IBGE, represent more than 10% of entire surface from the Area of Brussels and 60% of the green areas of Brussels opened with the public. The exploitation of the resources of the forest remains however an important activity. The task of the managers is to reconcile the economic and entertaining functions, while preserving the fragile ecological balance of this significant medium. For these reasons, hunting in forest of Look after was suspended in 1974 and was prohibited a few years later. The gathering of the plants and mushrooms is also prohibited in the parts Flemish and of Brussels. Certain parts are closed with the public to allow their regeneration. The beaconing holds certain ways and paths with one or the other category of walkers, pedestrians, riders or cyclists, and in certain zones one cannot deviate from the paths.

Sylviculture

The hêtraie inherited the management style initiated at the 17th century and then continued, is the result of a vision of the forest centered exclusively on its profitability. This monoculture of almost 80% from beeches and 10% of oaks also present, was intended to provide a wood of high-quality. The settlements are constantly cleared up to support the most interesting trees commercially. Natural pruning and the research of the light produce high and right barrels. The maximum height of the beeches and the oaks is reached at the end of 80 years after which, the diameter of the trunk continues to increase. The beeches are generally cut down after having reached the 200 years, although they can live older, the quality of wood decreases then and the age makes them more vulnerable to the diseases and insects Xylophage S (scolyte of the beech). This type of culture which produces on each piece of the of the same groves age and gasoline, obliges to carry out “white cuts” which leave the ground to naked, the groups of beeches of high size not making it possible the starts-up to appear. Today, the social and ecological functions of the forest took importance. The irregular grove is privileged, it consists of a mixture of gasoline trees and different age groups, which limits the radical changes of the medium at the time of demolitions and has multiple advantages from the point of view of the biodiversity. This forest type, more luminous and varied, offers niches ecological to a greater number of animal species and vegetable and enriched the ground by a humus by better quality. It has also the advantage of opposing a greater resistance to the diseases and the bad weather.

Settlements of coniferous tree are present on certain pieces at the sandy grounds, low in silt and minerals which are not appropriate for the leafy trees.

Topography and geology

The altitude of the forest of Look after varies from 65 meters to 132 meters. The permanent forest cover of the ground since the last glaciation preserved the reliefs and the various surface geological layers of the area destroyed elsewhere by agriculture and the other human activities. On a rock base which dates from the Primary era, settled during the Tertiaire (of - 55 with - 2 million years) various sandy layers with the various properties and composition according to the periods when the seas recovered the area. The layer of the Yprésien rich in clay and thus impermeable allowed the constitution of ground water in the less deep layers of sand allowing today the drinking water collecting in forest. Other layers contain by place of the calcareous sandstone which was used for example for the construction of the Cathédrale Saint-Michel-and-Gudule ( Kathedraal van Sint-Michiel in Sint-Goedele , in Dutch). All these layers are rich in fossils of plants and tropical marine animals of climate.

It is with the Quaternaire, during the period of large the Glaciation S that the current relief of the ground was formed. At each period of surface thaw, water not being able to penetrate in the permanently cold ground, has, by its streaming, caused a deep erosion, giving to the ground this strongly gullied relief that one knows to him today, and by place by digging to the water table with license the appearance of sources and wetlands. It is at the end of this time that were formed the muddy layers, per place of several meters thickness, consisted of fine particles brought by the wind. Under the surface layer, mixes silt and humus, from thirty to fifty centimetres thickness, is a very compact layer called fragipan , typical of the polar climates, which only remains where the ground was not plowed. This layer prevents the Hêtre S from being deeply anchored in the ground and makes these giants very unstable. To each storm of tens of trees fall like dominos (windfallen wood) by revealing their very surface system racinaire.

The geological characteristics of the forest of Look after explain its great vulnerability with the damage caused by surface waters of the roads and by the excessive frequentation walkers and cyclists whose passage compacts or erodes the grounds.

Fauna

The historical documents describe a forest giboyeuses with the Moyen-âge, on an extent four to five times more important and with a quite less human pressure. Many species disappeared during the centuries because of huntings and the restriction of their habitat. The list is long: Aurochs, dash, Deer, Brown bear, lynx or Wildcat; the last of what one regards as “big game”, Sanglier, stag, Chevreuil and wolf were exterminated before the end of the French period (1815). The Otter, the Badger, the Marten, and the Lièvre disappeared more recently.

Today, the only ones representing large mammals, are the roe-deers, reintroduced after their complete disappearances. Their population remains limited because of the many constraints and factors of stress specific to the forest of Look after, strong frequentation of human and their dogs, territory reduced and isolated in the middle of a strongly urbanized environment, parcelling out of the forest crossed by roads and insuperable railroads and, finally, the lack of underwood and undergrowth where to take refuge because of the dominant hêtraies.

Since the beginning of the year 2007, some wild boars were also seen in the forest, without which knows if they were transported there by men or migrated there by their own means. The foxes, them also reappeared for a few decades have contributed to the limitation of rabbits and enhardissent themselves more and more to visit the gardens of the districts bordering to the forest.

The small mammals are represented by the rodents, field voles, mulots and rats and their predatory, weasels, hermines or fitchet like by the russet-red squirrel arboricolous and since the last quarter of the 20th century, the squirrel of Korea ( Eutamias sibiricus ), introduced accidentally and which strongly multiplied, entering in competition not with his/her indigenous cousin, of which it does not share the same ecological niche, but with those of the birds which nest on the ground.

The forest of Look after also does not shelter less than 14 varieties of bat of which some belong to the threatened species.

The avifauna is represented by a hundred species, sedentaries or migrating, whose population is unfortunately in reduction, mainly with regard to the sparrows like the various varieties of Mésange S, the Pinson S, Fauvette S or Rouge-gorge. One meets also various kinds of small Rapace S, diurnal and night, of the Columbidé S, the crow S, Pie S and geais oaks like, near the ponds, various species watery, Canard S, hens of water, Foulque S or will hérons ashy.

The fragile ecosystems of the ponds and ponds are populated fish (of which the Bouvière, protected space) and of Batracien S threatened of extinction because of the pollution and the appearance of exotic predatory species slackened inconsiderately, like some tortoise S, Grenouille S and Serpent S, or envahisseuses and destroying of their Biotope like the carp.

The invertebrates were not very studied. There exist nevertheless partial scientific investigations, in particular concerning the Araignée S and the Coléoptère S which show their importance in this forest where one calculated 38 species of coleopters ( Lucanus cervus , protected; Carabus auronitens VAr. putzeysi , Belgian Endémisme; etc) and 137 species of spiders ( Philodromus praedatus , Belgian Endémisme; Achaearanea simulans and Walckenaeria corniculans inter alia like Atypus affinus recently discovered). Compared to the Lépidoptère S, one noted a strong reduction in butterflies - the blued common one ( Polyommatus icarus ), the swallowtail butterfly ( Papilio swallowtail butterfly ), etc-due to the suppression of their Biotope S, and one could observe 16 species different of Fourmi S and the species of bees like Apis mellifica among the Hyménoptère S.

The presence of the species autochtones was reduced by the presence of invasive exotic species, like the mineuse caterpillar ( Cameraria ohridella ), a Ravageur defoliator. There are other ravageurs like the xylophagous coleopters of the family of the Scolytes, and introduced the multicoloured ladybird ( Harmonia axyridis ). One finds also Collembola Diptère S like the Empidida, and in other groups of invertebrates, shellfish like the cladocères, of molluscs, the nematodes, etc

Flora

The old pieces of hêtraie make it possible only very few plants to settle. The groves form a tight vault which lets filter only little light, the dead sheets of beech form a thick litter which only breaks up very slowly and acidifies the ground, only some herbaceous plants put up with it. On the planted sandy eroded slopes Larch or of woodland Pine, the Fougère S push in abundance. Everywhere where the forest groupings are diversified, mixture of gasolines, among which the Chêne stalk, the Frêne, the maple sycamore, the Merisier, the Charme and the Bouleau, one meets a richer Flore. Y flower inter alia, the woodland anemone, the Ficaire false-buttercup, the Bluebell, the Euphorbe of wood, the Chèvrefeuille of wood, gantelée Campanule or, along the paths, the Balsamine of wood (the Impatience ), known for its fruits which, when they are ripe, explode by projecting their seeds as soon as they are touched. The wetlands and marshy offer a great botanical interest, some like the small valley of Vuylbeek, threatened of draining, were quarries and the Peuplier S which had been planted there were cut down; become natural reserve, one sees there under the Aulne S reappearing of many plant species which attract the insects, of which the Libellule S.

The Champignon S are represented by more than 1000 species. In spite of prohibition, the gathering, added to trampling and pollution, makes them likely of disappearance. Certain enclosed zones offer refuges to them which allow them recoloniser the ground.

The multiples of varieties of Lichen S and the foam S are invaluable indicators of the evolution of the quality of the air and ground.

Random links: