SITE NATURA 2000 : VALLÉE ET COTEAUX DE LA LAUZE

The Natura 2000 site "Vallée et des Coteaux de la Lauze" covers 5 399 hectares and concerns 3 rivers: the Gimone, the Lauze and the Arrats. It is divided into 2 units and covers 13 municipalities: Aussos, Betcave Aguin, Faget-Abbatial, Gaujan, Lamaguère, Meilhan, Monties, Saint-Blancard, Semezies-Cachan, Sère, Simorre, Tachoires, Villefranche.
It is an area of remarkable biodiversity, the result of past decades of human activity.

The Natura 2000 network aims to preserve biological diversity in the 27 European member states. It aims to ensure that natural habitats and species of Community interest are maintained or restored to a favourable conservation status.

The typical landscape of the Astarac is composed of asymmetrical hillsides which offer an original layering of vegetation which is organized from East to West on the valleys according to the following order
- on the eastern slopes: pubescent oak woods and moors with "Mediterranean" influenced vegetation: lavender, hedgehog broom (Genista horrida),..
- at the bottom of the wetter eastern slopes on boulbènes soils: meadows with sessile oak woodlands,
- along the rivers and on the western slopes: meadows and crops in mosaic with fresh woodlands (oak-beech).

In terms of remarkable biodiversity to be preserved at European level, there are in particular
- dry grasslands and moors with orchids,
- natural hay meadows,
- insects (kite lucanus, large capricorn) and bats (Small and Large Rhinolophe) linked to the bocage,
- the Sofie (fish) in the Lauze, and the White-clawed Crayfish in
tributaries,
- the Swamp Copper, an orange butterfly living in wet meadows

This area, which is home to remarkable orchids, is vulnerable because of changes in agricultural practices (cultivation of certain meadows, reduction in grazing leading to the closure of the environment, etc.)

The preservation of this site involves pursuing three main objectives
- to fight against agro-pastoral abandonment,
- to preserve the bocage,
- to preserve the environment and the quality of the water of the rivers
and is implemented through multi-year commitments by the owners and farmers

Adasea office on the 1st Thursday of each month from 9am to 12pm at the Maison Marre in Simorre.

DATAtourisme France