The Nature Reserve

Accès libre The nature reserve : for protecting, Canoë-kayak Pêche à la ligne managing, and familiarizing What is a nature reserve ? k a regulatory tool which prohibits certain environmental nuisances and supervises agricultural, pastoral, forestry and leisure activities whilst ensuring their preservation, k a means of managing natural environments by imple- menting actions designed to keep them under control or restore them, by studies and by scientific monitoring, k an area open to the public. For further information... A choice of three familiariza- tion trails and organized guided tours make it possible to explore along the river banks (Details can be obtained from local Tourist Information Offices, the Pavillon du Milieu de Loire and the Réserve Naturelle du Val de Loire Office). The Pavillon du Milieu de Loire is a museographical edifice in which the diversity and the working of the common terns natural Ligerian environments are explained. Classification : French Ministerial Order Région dated 21st November 1995. Bourgogne Région Surface area : 1,500 hectares (3,706.5 Centre acres) along a 19 kilometre stretch of the Nièvre Loire. Cosne- sur-Loire French communes : La Charité-sur-Loire, Pouilly- Mesves-sur-Loire, Pouilly-sur-Loire and Sancerre sur-Loire Réserve Tracy-sur-Loire in the French department Naturelle of Nièvre; La Chapelle-Montlinard, Herry La Charité- Cher sur-Loire and Couargues in the French department Loir In accordance with F. Mosse - RNF of Cher. e Ownership : French state 72%, French communes 3%, privately owned 25%. Administrators : Production : CPNRC, CSNB, RNF, Studio Préférences - Lay-out : CPNRC, CSNB, RNF - Printing: IMP Graphic - Editing 2008 - Printed on recycled paper -Photographs : A. Chiffaut, Y. Rivière, N. Pointecouteau, D. Hermant, J-L. Pratz, S. Grivel, B. Fritsch. Conservatoire des Sites Naturels Bourguignons Tél. : 03 80 79 25 99 Website : www.sitesnaturelsbourgogne.asso.fr The current events concerning nature in Burgundy can be found on www.bourgogne-nature.fr ADMINISTRATORS : Conservatoire du Patrimoine Naturel de la Région Centre Conservatoires des Sites Naturels Bourguignons Tél. : 02 38 77 02 72 - Website : cahiersnaturalistes.free.fr/cpnrc Access to the nesting sites is prohibited from April through to September in order Conservatoire du Patrimoine Naturel de la Région Centre � This document was produced with financial assistance from : to guarantee the reproduction of certain birds. Réserve Naturelle Nationale du Val de Loire 11 bis, rue Ferdinand Gambon The French Decree is available in the prefecture, town halls or the 58150 Pouilly sur Loire nature reserve office for those who would like further details on the Tel. : 03 86 39 05 10 / Fax. : 03 86 39 17 67 regulatory controls governing the Réserve Naturelle du Val de Loire. E-mail : [email protected] A landscaping river A natural, living mosaic Often seen as the The main river course 1 is a major migratory corridor Oxbows and secondary river courses 5 can dry up for last of the untamed for Atlantic salmon and lamprey. In the spring, king- part of the year. Water levels permitting, pike come European rivers, the fishers, bank swallows and European bee-eaters hollow and spawn in the beds Loire shapes the lands- out the eroded banks 2 to make their nests. During of aquatic grass that cape from its source the migration season, sandpipers, tattlers, lpwings and make up this still water through to the estua- plovers can be seen feeding in marshy areas. environment. In winter, ry in many different Living conditions on the numerous birds find ways. In the middle banks of sand and gravel shelter here. Common Loire, it will sometimes (beaches) 3 change from fleabane grows in the erode the banks, or one extreme to another : sandy areas. These it will sometimes deposit sand, creating an island that although the beach is under watery annexes play a elsewhere it will sweep away. At times of flooding, significant role in water water for most of the year, The natterjack toad seeks damp, sandy places. secondary courses can be created, or cut off, forming summer temperatures can resource preservation. oxbows. The Loire hawkweed is the only plant that go as high as 50°C and the ground does not hold the The alluvial forests 6 , comprising a huge variety All of these phenomena come under the heading grows all the way along this river, resisting of species, are subject to flooding. Great quantities of “fluvial dynamics”. the current thanks to its powerful root water. The only plants able system. to grow are those suited to of deadwood and miscellaneous “creepers” (vines, Hence, numerous channels are spread out between the the current and this lack of clematis, etc.) encourage the presence of rare insects moving sand banks and the many wooded islands. water. such as the longicorn beetle. Willows and This is the heart of the Loire valley with all its islands. Access to the beaches is prohibited during the nesting black poplars, the seasons as terns nest directly first to take root in on the ground; their eggs the sands, make up A distinctive vegetation and chicks being difficult to the softwood forest. spot on the ground. When new sand Various types of vegetation grow on the sand deposits deposits raise the depending on the proximity of surface and subsurface On its open grasslands and level of the ground, water, and the force, frequency and duration of the prairies, 4 coverings of a forest of English flooding. The countryside changes with every step... moss, lichen and stonecrop oak, European ash Alluvial forest characterize the poor, and elm trees takes This mosaic of highly contrasted natural environments, extremely dry, soils. The its place. subject to the constraints of the river, provides favou- whitish corynephorus, this These forests provide nesting rable living conditions for a distinctive and diversified small member of the grass sites for numerous woodpec- flora and fauna which is, at times, threatened. family, has thin leaves kers (great spotted, black, middle spotted, grey-hea- Open grasslands on sand which, thus, restrict its Simplified diagram showing ded). the vegetation distribution transpiration. The grasslands along the banks of the Loire and prairies on a sand bed Bushes resembling sharpened pencils betray the provide an environment presence of the European beavers, once hunted in this area to the point of extinction. Now reintro- particularly suitable for duced and protected, they have re-colonized their crickets, grasshoppers and former territory. By feeding on the willows and the butterflies. poplars, they help keep the Ligerian landscape These environments, under control. previously kept under control by grazing, are currently covered by sloe, dog rose, The rarity of certain natural environments bushes and brambles which characteristic of a river, still uncontained, provide food, nesting places and the protection status of numerous species and shelter for numerous of animals and plant life justify the existence birds such as the red-backed of this protected conservation area, shrike. the “Réserve Naturelle du Val de Loire”..

Load more