Pollarded beech trees

A species that thrives in cool and humid areas, the beech tree finds all the conditions it needs to flourish on the northern slope. The few beautiful specimens present here are pollarded. Also known as "trognes," these trees have undergone successive low cuts for decades, giving them their distinctive shapes. These cuts, often made to provide firewood, result in scars that appear as bulges on the tree. The presence of these trees is a boon for saproxylic insects (those that feed on dead wood) and, consequently, for birds like woodpeckers that feed on their larvae.