Basses Vallées Angevines

Mainly since the 1990’s, the Basses Vallées Angevines and the Loire Valley have benefitted from several measures and programmes which addressed the key environmental issues on the site. In the late 1970s, within a context favourable to the hunting of waterfowl, a development project for a national nature reserve had already taken in part of the site (4 500 ha): this project generated considerable local opposition from politicians and users, and failed in 1980 and 1981. Since the 1980s, (...)

Located near Angers, the Basses Vallées Angevines, including the Mayenne, Sarthe and the Loir(e??) valleys, comprises the largest set of confluences of the Loire basin. The whole complex occupies an area of about 7 000 hectares consisting mainly of flood plain grasslands and poplar cultivation, managed as a large hydraulic system. This is a natural flood expansion area, where floods can come from both upstream and downstream (Loire), and it can hold more than 200 million cubic meters.
Types (...)