2024-01-01 15:00:04
On one side, the groomed snow and the colorful parade of skiers, who came to enjoy, in mid-December, the first days of opening of the Les Arcs resort (Savoie). On the other, the calm of the larch trees. It is here, just at the edge of the track, that the “quiet zone” of the black grouse begins, demarcated by a cordon, and yellow and black signs depicting this emblematic mountain rooster.
In Les Arcs, two refuge areas have been created as part of the European Birdski program, carried by the Vanoise national park from 2020 to the end of 2023, with twenty-six stations in Savoie and Haute-Savoie. Red flags and other markers also fly on the ski lift cables: almost half of these cables are now equipped so that birds can see them better and avoid killing themselves by hitting them.
A ski instructor gives a lesson to a group, at an altitude of 2,100 meters, in front of a typical black grouse habitat area. In Les Arcs (Savoie), December 19, 2023. SOPHIE RODRIGUEZ FOR “THE WORLD”
Already affected by global warming, ski areas are increasingly facing another major environmental challenge: reconciling winter sports and preserving biodiversity. “There is recent awareness among stations of their impact on wildlife”notes Sandrine Berthillot, technician at the Vanoise park.
Growth of off-piste activities
In recent years, more than 160 tranquility zones in favor of the black grouse have been set up in the French Alps, from Mercantour to Bauges or Vercors. A beginning of change for the ski industry which has developed, since the snow plans of the 1960s and 1970s, in the cult of large developments and mass tourism.
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The changes took place at that time, without any follow-up: “The creation of resorts, sometimes ex nihilo in natural or pastoral environments, with their share of construction, ski lifts, deforestation and earthworks of slopes, represented a significant net loss of habitat for mountain fauna”relates Marc Montadert, from the research department of the French Biodiversity Office (OFB).
This mountain, perceived as a vast playground, nevertheless remains a populated territory: in Les Arcs, the Environmental Observatory, created in 2012, has inventoried 265 animal species in the ski area, including 111 protected. Outside the stations, already occupying some 300,000 hectares in France, the recent boom in off-piste activities – ski touring, snowshoeing, etc. – further increases this human presence, which penetrates into the heart of hitherto isolated natural environments.
A sign indicates a tranquility zone for black grouse at the edge of a ski slope. In Les Arcs (Savoie), December 19, 2023. SOPHIE RODRIGUEZ FOR “THE WORLD”
Faced with these winter sports, the black grouse is one of the most vulnerable species. This bird lives around 1,900 to 2,300 meters above sea level, on snow-covered slopes, at the edge between sparse forests, moors and high altitude meadows: the very place where the major resorts are located. Studies carried out in Switzerland have shown that this galliform is less present in ski areas, as well as in areas most frequented by off-piste activities.
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