It’s all a matter of geometry: cutting squares and rectangles out of wooden cylinders, to get out as many trays, beams and rafters as possible. Seated in the armchair of his cabin which overlooks the long hall of the Chauvin sawmill, located in Mignovillard, a small town in the Jura at an altitude of 800 metres, Stéphane (he did not wish to give his name), one eye on the logs of softwood passing under his feet, the other on the control screens, solves the exercise, controller in hand, guided by a laser.
To this art of handling shapes is added that of distinguishing colors. Only by sight, this time. White, no problem. Black, the operator, fifteen years of experience, stops the band saw carriage – “There, the log on which we have already removed a plate, on the right, in the middle, there are three black notches. That’s a big worm,” we dismiss. The wood is unsuitable for construction. “Nothing kills the worm, it continues to eat,” explains Stéphane. As for blue, “there, on the edge”, the teams at this family sawmill – a story spanning five generations – have learned to consider it since the bark beetle began to ravage the spruce forests. The tiny insect, which the tree usually drowns in a bath of resin, enjoys episodes of drought amplified by global warming. High temperatures favor its proliferation. In Burgundy and Franche-Comté, since 2018, tens of thousands of hectares have been affected. The landscapes of eastern Europe are profoundly changed. The Alps are starting to be affected.
The blue traces come from a fungus which develops after the passage of the beetle. It is precisely these colored sections, and not the immaculate ones imported from Scandinavia, that Paul Jarquin, founder of REI Habitat (of which Axa holds 49% of the capital), specialist in wooden construction, intends to use massively in an operation in Lyon, in the heart of the Confluence district.
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Originally published at Almouwatin.com
