Alpilles Regional Nature Park
The Regional Nature Park Alpilles ( French Parc naturel régional des Alpilles ) is located in the French department Bouches-du-Rhône in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region . The core area of this nature park comprises the Alpilles mountain range , which stretches around 15 kilometers south of Avignon between the Rhône and Durance rivers. It borders the Luberon Regional Nature Park in the northeast and the Camargue Regional Nature Park in the southwest .
Park management
The nature park was founded on February 1, 2007 and covers an area of 51,000 hectares. The park administration is currently based in Saint-Étienne-du-Grès ( 43 ° 46 '50 " N , 4 ° 44' 10" E, ). Work is underway to set up a “Maison du Parc” with a visitor center in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence .
Sixteen communities with a catchment area of 68,000 residents make up the park. They are:
- Aureille
- Eygalières
- Eyguières
- Fontvieille
- Lamanon
- Les Baux-de-Provence
- Mas-Blanc-des-Alpilles
- Maussane-les-Alpilles
- Mouriès
- Orgone
- Paradou
- Saint-Etienne-du-Grès
- Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
- Sénas
The following two municipalities are not part of the park area in terms of area, but are associated with the park as access cities:
landscape
The Alpilles form the last elevation before the great Rhône delta . You rise abruptly from the plains of the Rhône and the Durance to a height of 200 to 500 meters without a slow transition . The mountain ridges of the Alpilles were formed in the Cretaceous by unfolding from the sea. The further changes up to the present shape are a result of erosion by the sun, water and wind. Although they are karstic and arid on the hills , they are fed by springs at the foot of the mountains, near which people settled in early eras. More than 200 archaeological sites bear witness to this.
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Today the area comprises around 19,000 hectares of forest , 25,000 hectares of agricultural land and 400 kilometers of irrigation canals . The park offers a great variety of natural areas, where the wetlands in the lowlands mix in a relatively small area with the sparsely populated dry areas in the mountains, where the vegetation of the Mediterranean dry grass predominates. Here there are interesting habitats for some rare animal and plant species, such as B.
Fauna :
- Bonelli's eagle (also: Bonelli's eagle )
- Egyptian vulture
- Red hawk
- Eagle owl
- Long-winged bat
- Pearl lizard
- Knife-foot toad
Flora :
- Summer knot flower
- Sun rose ( Helianthemum lavandulifolium )
- Sea ravage ( Ephedra major )
- Ragwort ( Ophrys provincialis )
See also
List of regional natural parks in France
