Heating: what are the rules for going to cut firewood in the forest?

Four Frenchmen are heated today with firewood. But like all fuels, cubic meters of firewood are now increasingly expensive (65 to 75 euros), even inaccessible to some households despite aid.

One of the solutions is to go to the forest and collect your own fuel for heating. This is called affouage, a practice that dates back to the Middle Ages.

As the National Forestry Office (ONF) recalls, “at that time, the lord of the place granted the inhabitants of his towns the right to collect firewood in the forests. This right was valid for each household (“affouer” comes from Old French and means “in the light”), hence the name of this practice.”

Only in communal forests

Today, affouage is still practiced by forest municipalities, more particularly in the north-eastern quarter, where there is a large proportion of communal forests.

However, this practice is supervised. Therefore, state companies are not affected by the affouage and it is absolutely prohibited for private individuals to collect wood in these forests for heating or other purposes.

And it is not about going to the forest with your ax or your saw to cut down any tree.

The affouage is orchestrated by various actors, in particular the town hall, which decides on the organization of the affouage, fixes the amount of the tax (a few tens of euros in general) and distributes the prizes by lottery. Then an individual can come and cut his own wood within the limit of what he has been allotted.

Trees marked by ONF foresters are generally found in young stands to be thinned and in coppices. Their diameter usually does not exceed 35 cm at breast height.

Supervised practice

According to the Forest Code “in forests and mountains, the felling or removal of wood of less than 20 centimeters in circumference, whether or not it has been planted for less than ten years, is penalized with the fine provided for 5th class fines.” (1500 euros).

Obviously, it is strictly forbidden to resell this wood…

Finally, it is forbidden to use the piles of logs stored in the forest or to collect dead wood because it allows the soil to regenerate.

The ONF points out that felling a tree is a delicate and dangerous operation. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to protect yourself and use personal protective equipment.