General
Heritage and terroir
Culture
Environment
Landscapes
Beaches
The harbours
The salt marshes
The peat bogs
The moors
The forests
Rambling
Centre Permanent d'Initiatives pour l'Environnement (CPIE) du Cotentin
Leisure activities
Accommodation and eating out

THE FORESTS

The county of La Manche is the least wooded in the whole of France, with only 3% of its surface area covered by forest.  The beech tree is the most common species, however the moors around Lessay make up the largest pine forest in Normandy (over 800 hectares).  The main forested areas belong to the villages of Pirou, Lessay, La Feuillie, Saint Patrice de Claids, Saint-Germain-sur Ay and Créances.

They are managed by the Office National des Forêts.  Initially planned as a means of producing timber, the planting of trees on Lessay’s moorland began at the end of the 19th C and reached its peak in the 1950s.  The main species of tree is the maritime pine.

Within the district there are the following wooded areas: the local forest at Lessay (87 hectares); the forest at St-Patrice-de-Claids (75 hectares); the moorland at La Feuillie (172 hectares); the national forest at Vesly-Pissot (35 hectares); Gerville-la-Forêt (237 hectares); wooded moorland at Pirou (300 hectares); and the moorland around Millières (240 hectares).