Precious ecosystem
On the rocks and mountains, the natural environments are mainly composed of limestone lawns, cliffs and scree. They are the fruit of human exploitation which favored the birth of a particular ecosystem, rich and subservient to this microregion. Today protected by the Natura 2000 system, these fragile and threatened environments are the subject of all attention.
Where nature and the hand of man combine
Over time, human intervention has profoundly changed the landscape and the original environments of the site. Initially covered in forest, the parts summits rocks of Solutré and Vergisson (as well as those of Mont de Pouilly, and, outside the perimeter of the Grand Site, of Monsard à Bussières and Bois de Fée – Mont de Leynes) were cleared for agriculture. Until the middle of the 19th centurye century, the polyculture is widespread among farms, breeding then represents a necessary additional income. Women and children take the animals to graze on the lawns of Les Roches. THE pasture and regular burning maintains the environments. The plants had to adapt to very poor and very dry soil in summer, by building up significant reserves in their leaves and stems. The vegetation there is so rich in nutrition that it makes it possible to fatten the animals, leading to giving the grazing areas the name of fattening meadows. Today they shelter a specific environment: the lime lawns (or limestone lawns). These spaces are vast expanses of short lawns, also called teppes, covering poor and shallow soil. This same plant formation is found continuously, from south to north, on the backs of the rocks and mountains of the Mâconnais.
Located just below the climatic break zone between north and south, the Maconnais is subject to a continental climate tinged with Mediterranean influences attenuated by some Atlantic and mountain influences. These meteorological phenomena, the coexistence of crystalline, limestone and clay-limestone soils (the rapid disappearance of rainwater in the numerous cracks makes the soil dry and arid), the altitude of the reliefs and their exposures, are all factors which contribute to the wealth middle.
La wildlife is here queen. There mosaic of cliffs, limestone lawns and forest, offers the Ortolan Bunting, the Eagle Owl, the Common Raven, ideal nesting areas. The Northern Lark, the Red-backed Shrike and the European Nightjar appreciate the grassy areas of limestone lawns punctuated with bushes.
In a colorful flight, the bugs such as the Flamed Butterfly, the Praying Mantis or the Turquoise Oedipod are very common on the Rocks. Many reptiles show the tips of their scales in the summer when the two-banded lizard or the green and yellow snake can be out.
But wealth in danger
Coming from a pastoral heritage, the limestone lawns are recognized as emblematic environments of Burgundy. Today they form “biodiversity cores”, but are strongly threatened with extinction.
In the 1950s, the monocultures has ousted mixed farming. The exclusive exploitation of the vine has made it possible to support families without ancillary livestock activities, thus abandoning areas that are not very productive and difficult to exploit. The limestone lawns were abandoned, offering nature the opportunity to reclaim its rights. Broom and downy oaks have settled there along the paths, and boxwood flourishes in numerous groves, the roots of which risk bursting the rocks and thus accelerating their growth. erosion.
This closure of environments, that is to say the increase in the presence of trees, the first step towards the restoration of the original forest, is a natural evolution and climax. But she is disastrous for the landscape and for the biological diversity that the limestone lawns accommodate.
Other threats weigh on this rich and fragile environment:
- registration, common in the 80s, ends up spreading if it is not checked regularly,
- the development ofinvasive species coming from the embankments and gardens (robinia false acacias, sumac),
- le trampling visitors,
- sports and leisure activities, off-road vehicles.
The Roche de Vergisson is the subject of a prefectural order for the protection of the biotope since June 13, 1991.More broadly, the biological diversity present here, characterized by the presence of rare species and remarkable plant associations, is recognized at the European level: the Roches de Solutré and Vergisson, the Mont de Pouilly, the Bois de Fée and the Monsard, are today integrated into the network Natura 2000. These five reliefs are also included in the inventory of Natural areas of ecological, fauna and flora interest (ZNIEFF ) type I.