In the Pyrénées-Orientales, the nature reserves, grouped in a federation, are the beautiful slags of a vast aborted project. That of the creation of a national natural park around the valley, very close and so spectacular, of the Carança. "But this project came after the creation of the Pyrenees Natural Park which had aroused a lot of opposition and conflicts, so it did not succeed and the promoters of this project fell back on the reserves," says Sandra Mendez, curator of the Eyne reserve.
But why exactly did you choose, thirty years ago, to make this valley wedged between the peaks of Cambre d'Aze and peaks of Finestrelles or Eyne, a nature reserve? "Because it is an easily accessible valley first, we are quickly in the heart of nature, but also because it has been famous for a very long time in the world of botanists," continues the curator. The territory of the reserve is so famous that it even attracted the Swiss botanist Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle, cornerstone of the discipline in the nineteenth century...
842 plants and 500 mosses or lichens
"In total, 842 plants and 500 mosses or lichens are listed on the 1,800 hectares of the reserve." The population of Pyrenean Adonis is thus 2000 feet strong while the three to four thousand breeding feet of the mountain dolphin alone constitute nearly half of the world population of the species. Let us also mention the parsley of the isards, these Pyrenean chamois ... And who says flowers, says insects ... We should be talking about the endemic Eyne Valley locust or butterflies that are subject to special monitoring.
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It is therefore these three decades of history that will be the subject of appointments throughout this summer, from this Saturday, May 27 with a nature challenge, until July 1 with a hike organized from Eyne and Nuria on the other side of the border, the participants meeting at the Nuria Pass at nearly 2,700 meters above sea level. "Nature aperitifs" are planned on Thursdays of this summer with, at each edition, a particular theme of discussion, from soil to flora through climate change... "However, we must remain cautious, access to the reserve is regulated and we do not seek to increase attendance in the heart of this fragile environment," says Sandra Mendez. A good reason to make a detour to the house of the Reserve in Eyne before entering the valley!
