“Everything was black here in April”: in the Sancy massif, the forest is coming back to life after the fires

In a blackened landscape around Mount Redon and its 1,580 meters of altitude, the songs of larks can be heard, while birds of prey soar above the ashes: on the heights of the Sancy massif (Puy-de-Dôme), nature is reclaiming its rights after the fire that devastated 200 hectares in April, mobilizing up to 200 firefighters and 50 engines. The path winds between low clumps and darkened plant silhouettes. Underfoot, the ground still releases wafts of burnt wood smell in places. "Here, everything was black in April," recalls a walker, while clusters of hikers survey the landscape without much concern for the still charred areas. The curator of the Chastreix-Sancy national nature reserve, Thierry Leroy, estimates that "the alpine grassland has regained more than half of its surface area."

Five months after the fire, the regeneration is mixed for those who know how to look. Plant corpses crunch underfoot as you stray from the path. The heaths of purgative broom are slowly reborn, the deep black of their charred branches contrasting with the soft green of the new shoots. The toxins emitted by the broom slow the germination of other plants, but the gentian persists, and a few spared groves form an oasis amidst the ashes. In places, raspberry bushes, brambles, and willowherbs are already recolonizing the bare soil, mineralized by the ash.

The rapid recovery is due to the fact that "the fire spared certain refuge areas such as scree, valleys, streams, and depressions. This fragmentation is due to the shifting wind, which sometimes caused the fire to leap over certain areas, or to pass very quickly," explains Thierry Leroy. These pockets of vegetation served as reservoirs of life. The soil, burned to a depth of only 2 or 3 centimeters, protected roots and seeds. The ashes, for their part, played their fertilizing role. The ecological quality of the site did the rest: the national nature reserve managed by the Auvergne Volcanoes Regional Park maintains a rich and resilient environment, capable of absorbing a shock and recovering quickly.

The fauna, meanwhile, was relatively unaffected: migratory birds had not yet returned, while larks, pipits, mouflons, and other chamois had moved into unaffected areas. Marmots, for their part, remained sheltered in their burrows. Invertebrates, larvae, and eggs were more affected. This August, a few butterflies raced along the ground, but insect density remained lower, and some bird species chose to breed elsewhere.

Three days after the fire, the trails were reopened, simply marked with signs warning of vigilance. On the ridge, two couples pause, breathless at the view, unaware that part of the landscape burned in the spring. Further down, groups of walkers skirt the charred lawn without much concern. Others, families or solo, calmly climb over the wooden ladders installed on the fences. They follow the route to reach Fracture, by visual artist Hugo Livet, one of ten monumental works scattered throughout the Sancy massif for the 19th edition of the Horizons Arts-Nature summer event. Here, we walk as much for the beauty of the landscapes as for the pleasure of stumbling upon a surprising installation at the bend in a path.

Prevention now boils down to reminding people to ban fires during dry periods. The reserve team hasn't changed its way of working. It protects more than 5,500 species of plants and animals, including some 800 rare ones, and around 200 endangered ones living on the ridges, such as the Auvergne curly-leaved jasione and the Lamotte saxifrage. "Global warming is changing the context. Less snow, longer periods of sunshine, and drying winds increase the risk of fires in winter," warns Thierry Leroy. For him, "the role of the reserve remains crucial: it limits human pressure and maintains favorable conditions for biodiversity, even in the face of global warming. Some species will disappear, but we can still protect the entire system and provide areas where nature can fully express itself."