Creation of a new nature reserve

Creation of a new nature reserve

It has just been announced that an area surrounding one of our local mountains, Montious, has been declared a “Reserve Naturelle”. Le Massif du Montious, as it will be known, is situated in the heart of the French Pyrenees in our beautiful Vallée du Louron.

Le Massif du Montious is the 14th Reserve Naturelle Regionale (RNR) in our region of Occitanie. With 12,286 hectares of countryside now protected, Occitanie has become the number one region in France for nature reserves and it ensures the protection areas of outstanding natural beauty for current and future generations.

This decision to select this area was made to protect a zone that is known for its remarkable biodiversity. It is hoped that by creating this new nature reserve it will facilitate the preservation of many species of animals, birds and plants and help them to adapt to climate change. This new area comprises 739 hectares of forests, wetlands and moors and is particularly noted for its ancient Pyrenean forest, lake and variety of flora and fauna.

In our valley we are fortunate to see nature at her best from beautiful mountain flowers, incredible birds of prey including the Bearded vulture and Griffon vulture which we see often around the area of Montious and even a couple of bears (no personal sightings yet)! With this new initiative hopefully, we will preserve this environment and its inhabitants for many more years to come and we hope to have a chance to share it with you all in the future.