Living under the pines, after the summer of 2022

The summer of 2022 left its mark on the Bay. The fire at La Teste-de-Buch ran through more than seven thousand hectares, the one at Landiras more still, and for several weeks the question stopped being theoretical.

What has changed since is not only the mood. It is the law.

I. A framework redrawn since 2023

The law of 10 July 2023 on strengthening prevention and control of intensifying wildfire risk substantially revised the regime of legal vegetation clearance obligations. It was supplemented by an interministerial order of 29 March 2024, then applied department by department.

In the Gironde, local application comes from the prefectural order of 17 October 2025.

Scope. Land within two hundred metres of woodland is covered. Around Arcachon Bay, that takes in a very large share of the built environment: Pyla-sur-Mer, La Teste-de-Buch, the whole Lège-Cap-Ferret peninsula, and the communes of the North and South Bay.

Extent of the obligation:

• Fifty metres around buildings, installations and works.
• Ten metres either side of private roads giving access to buildings.
• Up to one hundred metres where a wildfire prevention plan so provides.

The surprising part. The obligation extends beyond your plot boundary. If the fifty-metre radius around your house reaches into a neighbour's land, it falls to you to have that portion cleared, after informing them. The mechanism is little known and a source of neighbourly friction — better addressed before an enforcement notice imposes it.

II. What clearance actually means

Clearing is not clear-felling. The rules aim to break the continuity of fuel, horizontally and vertically, to stop fire climbing from the ground into the canopy.

In practice that means:

• Removing low and dead vegetation, scrub and cuttings.
• Pruning retained trees to a given height, removing the ladder that carries fire into the crown.
• Thinning crowns so that they do not touch.
• Clearing space around buildings, and moving branches away from roofs.
• Maintaining that state over time: clearance is not a one-off act but a continuing obligation.

Notable trees and protected species are subject to particular rules. On wooded plots of landscape value, it is prudent to have a clearance plan drawn up by a professional rather than cutting by eye.

III. Penalties, now real

The penalty regime has been strengthened and, more importantly, enforcement has genuinely taken place since 2023.

• Formal notice with a daily penalty payment.
• Works carried out at the owner's expense.
• Administrative fine of up to €50 per square metre left uncleared — on a wooded plot, the order of magnitude quickly becomes considerable.
• Fifth-class summary offence, €1,500.

And a point that bears directly on insurance: French insurance law provides that, for damage caused by a forest fire, an additional excess of up to €5,000 may be applied where the clearance obligations were not met.

IV. What this means for an absent owner

Clearance is not a one-off task. It is a state to be maintained, checked in summer — when the second-home owner is present, which is good news — but resulting from work done in winter and spring, when they are not.

The arrangement that works:

In autumn, have the main clearance done: low vegetation, cuttings, pruning. It is also the season when forestry contractors are available.

In spring, a catch-up after growth resumes, before summer.

Keep the evidence: dated before-and-after photographs, contractors' invoices. In an inspection or after a claim, that is what shows the obligation was met.

One figure often quoted by the authorities: the great majority of houses destroyed in forest fires stood on land that was uncleared or poorly cleared, while properly cleared houses are, overwhelmingly, spared.

In other words, the obligation is not merely administrative. It is, statistically, the most effective protection available to an owner living under the pines.

V. Other useful measures

Beyond clearance, a few provisions substantially reduce a house's vulnerability.

• Screen air inlets with fine mesh: wind-borne embers enter through ventilation openings and roof vents, and it is a frequent point of ignition.
• Prefer solid shutters to slatted ones on elevations facing the forest.
• Clear the immediate surroundings: no firewood against the façade, no resin furniture under an overhang, no unprotected gas cylinders outside.
• Keep gutters clear: a gutter full of pine needles is a path for fire along the roofline.
• Provide clear fire service access, with a gate that can be operated manually during a power cut.

That last point is worth checking physically: many motorised gates around the Bay have no manual release accessible from outside. On the day someone needs to get in quickly, it matters.