The value of such an inventory rests on the fact that it does not settle for estimating the volume of wood produced by the forest. Dendrometric and silvicultural, it steps out onto the ecological terrain, analysing the herbaceous vegetation and the soils (2). Thus just a few years ago, nobody in the small world of forestry engineers thought about estimating precisely the quantity of lying deadwood in a forest. Nor considered the value of classifying this ‘lost’ wood according to its stage of  decay through the effects of fungi, insects, lichens, etc. ‘Pushed as far as that, the inventory carried out at Sart Tilman constitutes a genuine first in the Walloon Region,’ points out Jacques Rondeux, ‘and more specifically in the field of so-called ” management surveys” carried out on a scale of several hundreds of hectares. As such, it could inspire other inventories, for example in forests subject to the Forestry Code (local authority, regional, etc.).

‘What is at stake is a genuine bio-monitoring of the whole of the Sart Tilman forest site. With such indicators, revised every five or ten years, we could perfectly imagine modifying, to a greater or lesser extent, the forestry zoning of the university site with the aim of differentiating, on an objective basis, zones in which certain vocations (“land use”) could be defined in an optimal manner (way ?): production, conservation, leisure, etc. Other functions could arise from it, such as enabling a ‘reasoned’ expression of the biodiversity or helping to host the localisation of possible new implantations and activity zones. Don’t forget that a ‘romantic’ vision of the forest, completely respectable, could prove misleading. Thus the presence of very large and old trees, remarkable and prestigious, gives an impression of stability. But in fact it is nothing but spectacular. As an abandoned forest proves facing attacks by the climate, diseases and depredators. And, at the Sart Tilman as elsewhere, it is not very likely that the predicted climate developments for the next few years allow us the possibility of resting on our laurels.’

(2) This inventory does nonetheless not go so far as listing the fauna.