Caution !
The nature reserve: for protecting, - Be extremely careful in flood areas. - In the woods, look out for falling branches, managing, and familiarizing especially in windy conditions. - Do not get too close to eroded banks as What is a nature reserve ? you might fall into the water. k a regulatory tool which prohibits certain environmental Accès libre nuisances and supervises agricultural, pastoral, forestry and leisure activities whilst ensuring their preservation, k a means of managing natural environments by implementing actions designed to keep them under control or restore Useful information Canoë-kayak them, by studies and by scientific monitoring, Campsite k an area open to the public. Picnic area
cycling route For further information... Canoe/kayak launching ramp Pêche à la ligne Visitors can explore the Loire Nature trail and its environment by taking Scenic view a tour on one of three nature Pavillon du Milieu de Loire trails, or by attending the (environmental education centre) events and activities which Tourist Office are regularly organised. Interpretation and For more information, please information board visit our Web page at www.reserves-naturelles.org/val-de- Natural areas loire or contact a local Tourist Office, the Nature Reserve Source: 2007 vegetation map office or the Pavillon du Milieu de Loire, an environmental Quick currents (main and secondary river courses, education centre located in Pouilly-sur-Loire. brooks) - (21% of total surface area) Classification: French Ministerial Order Still waters (oxbows, wetlands and ponds) - (2%) dated 21st November 1995. Région Bourgogne Région Sandy and silty banks - (18%) Surface area: 1,500 hectares (3,706.5 acres) Centre along a 19 kilometre stretch of the Loire. Alluvial softwood forests of white willows and poplars French communes: La Charité-sur-Loire, Nièvre - (20%) Cosne- Mesves-sur-Loire, Pouilly-sur-Loire and sur-Loire Alluvial hardwood forests of Tracy-sur-Loire in the French department ashes and oaks - (13%) Pouilly- Grasslands and prairies of Nièvre; La Chapelle-Montlinard, Herry Sancerre sur-Loire Réserve - (11%) and Couargues in the French department of Naturelle Hawthorn, sloe tree or elm Cher. La Charité- Cher sur-Loire thickets - (9%)
Ownership: French state 72%, French Loir Planted locusts and poplars, communes 3%, privately owned 25%. e cultivated land - (7%)
Administrators: common tern Conservatoire d’espaces naturels de Bourgogne Production: CenC, CenB, RNF, Studio Préférences - Lay-out: CenC, CenB, RNF - Translation: Publi-Micro - Printing: CIABourgogne - Editing 2014 - Printed on recycled paper -Photographs: N. Pointecouteau, D. Hermant, B. Fritsch, S. Caux/CenBourgogne, S. Grivel, B. Dumas, F. Daumal-Scapin - Map: Mélanie Martin Tel.: 03 80 79 25 99 Website: www.cen-bourgogne.fr Administrators: The current events concerning nature in Burgundy can be found on www.bourgogne-nature.fr Conservatoire d’espaces naturels de la région Centre Conservatoire d’espaces naturels de Bourgogne Tel.: 02 38 77 02 72 - Website: www.cen-centre.org Access to the nesting sites is prohibited from Conservatoire d’espaces naturels de la région Centre April through to September in order to gua- This document was produced with rantee the reproduction of certain birds. Réserve Naturelle Nationale du Val de Loire financial assistance from: 11 bis, rue Ferdinand Gambon The French Decree is available in the prefecture, town halls or the nature 58150 Pouilly sur Loire reserve office for those who would like further details on the regulatory Tel.: 03 86 39 05 10 / Fax.: 03 86 39 17 67 controls governing the Réserve Naturelle du Val de Loire. E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.reserves-naturelles.org/val-de-loire A landscaping river A natural, living mosaic Often seen as the last of The main river course 1 is a Oxbows 6 and secondary river courses 7 can dry up for the untamed European major migratory corridor for part of the year. Water levels permitting, pike come and rivers, the Loire shapes the Atlantic salmon and lamprey. spawn in the beds of aquatic landscape from its source In the spring, kingfishers, bank grass that make up this still through to the estuary in swallows and European bee- water environment. In winter, many different ways. In eaters hollow out the eroded numerous birds find shelter the middle Loire, it will banks 2 to make their nests. here. Common fleabane sometimes erode the banks, The Loire hawkweed is the only plant that During the migration season, grows in the sandy areas. grows all the way along this river, resisting sandpipers, tattlers, lpwings and or it will sometimes deposit the current thanks to its powerful root These watery annexes play system. plovers can be seen feeding in a significant role in water sand, creating an island marshy areas. that elsewhere it will sweep away. At times of flooding, Living conditions on the banks The natterjack toad seeks damp, sandy places. resource preservation. secondary courses can be created, or cut off, forming of sand and gravel 3 (beaches) oxbows. change from one extreme The alluvial forests, 8 comprising a huge variety of to another: although the beach species, are subject to flooding. Great quantities of All of these phenomena come under the heading is under water for most of the deadwood and miscellaneous “creepers” (vines, clematis, of “fluvial dynamics”. year, summer temperatures can etc.) encourage the presence of rare insects such as go as high as 50°C and the the longicorn beetle. Hence, numerous channels are spread out between the ground does not hold the water. Willows and black moving sand banks and the many wooded islands. The only plants able to grow poplars, the first to are those suited to the current Common tern eggs take root in the sands, and this lack of water. make up the softwood This is the heart of the Loire valley with all its islands. Access to the beaches is forest. When new sand prohibited during the nesting deposits raise the level seasons as terns nest directly of the ground, a forest A distinctive vegetation on the ground; their eggs and of English oak, European chicks being difficult to spot on ash and elm trees takes Various types of vegetation grow on the sand deposits the ground. its place. Alluvial forest depending on the proximity of surface and subsurface water, and the force, frequency and duration of the On its open grasslands and These forests provide nesting sites flooding, forming an ever-changing landscape. prairies, 4 coverings of moss, for numerous woodpeckers (great l i c h e n and stonecrop spotted, black, middle spotted, This mosaic of highly contrasted natural environments, characterize the poor, grey-headed). subject to the constraints of the river, provides favourable extremely dry, soils. The whitish living conditions for a distinctive and diversified flora and corynephorus, this small member fauna which is, at times, threatened. of the grass family, has thin Open grasslands on sand leaves which, thus, restrict its Bushes resembling sharpened pencils betray the transpiration. The grasslands presence of the European beavers, once hunted 5 4 3 8 Alluvial forests in this area to the point of extinction. Now and prairies on a sand bed reintroduced and protected, they have re-colonized Thickets Grasslands Sandy and Low growth of Softwood Hardwood Alluvial forests and prairies silty banks provide an environment their former territory. By feeding on the willows and willow saplings forest forest particularly suitable for crickets, the poplars, they help keep the Ligerian landscape grasshoppers and butterflies. under control. 5 These environments, previously Eroded banks 2 kept under control by grazing, are currently covered by sloe, The rarity of certain natural environments characteristic Secondary Pools and dog rose, bushes and brambles of a river, still uncontained, 1 Main river course 7 river course 6 Oxbow wetlands Water table which provide food, nesting and the protection status of numerous species Low-water channel places and shelter for numerous of animals and plant life justify the existence Flood plain birds such as the red-backed of this protected conservation area, shrike. the “Réserve Naturelle du Val de Loire”.