French oak certified from sustainable forestry at the good house.

Though there is no such thing as a 200 year old sustainably managed forest in Australia, in the Old World however...

...You may have only had the short version so far, thus, for your delight, here is the long story:

In the year of our Lord 1291, in a time when talking about Terra Australis would have taken you straight away to the hearty bone fires of the inquisition, the then French king "Philippe le Bel" created the "Administration des Eaux et Forets" (Administration of Waters and Forests), an institution that survived every hardship of the French history until 1966, when it was replaced by the ONF (National Forestry Office).

Though the first French forestry code was written in 1346, modern day management really started under Louis the 14th prime minister Jean Baptiste Colbert who, between 1661 and 1669 restructured all royal domain forests. The jewel in the crown was, and still is the "Tronçais" forest (pictured in our website), certainly the finest oak forest in Europe.

Of course in the 17th century sustainability was not such a popular topic. Readily available timber for the purpose of building warships was rather the matter, and unlike UK tapping freely into Tasmanian Huon pines for towering masts, France had to rely on local supply, therefore planning and management was the way to go. Some awesome fellows well over 200 years old are here to remind us the job was well done, the older ones planted circa 1580/1630.

Nowadays 50% of commercial French oak comes from ONF managed national or local communities forests, a mere 12 million hectares out of the whole 17 million hectares of forests representing 30% of the French territory, and still extending! Our main supplier operates under a PEFC (Pan European Forestry Council) agreement, the European equivalent of the FSC. They are based in Burgundy, oak barrels no strangers to the reputation of the local wines.

As far as oak flooring is concerned, the point we want to make is that our flooring, be it narrow or wide boards, comes from trees up to 200 years old, and this is a sustainable supply, because 200 years ago there were people out there making sure these trees would not be the last!!!