>>2670317See the pic. This is Cassini map, a 18th century map. I centered it around Barcelonnette, a place previous comment said was wilderness in France. But as you see, it was already fully deforested in the 18th century. During the 19th and 20th, some pine species were planted to fight against erosion. They are not species coming from this place at all. Before it was mostly a "leaf" forest, now it's evergreen forest everywhere in the French Alps.
I did it myself. I helped my grandpa cut some hectares of wood. It's really easy and quick. Now we've planted evergreen there and already have a forest, but it is fully manmade
