REPORTAGE. Fire, drought, lack of water… In Brittany, the village of Botmeur caught up in global warming

It was to be the biggest night of the year. The Breton musician El Maout was to perform on July 21 at the associative café “O’Pti Boneur”, in Botmeur (Finistère). “It brings people back, we were expecting 300 people”locates Malou Douillard, the waitress of the place. “He’s someone who sets the stage on fire.” But someone else was in charge, three days earlier, of lighting the fuse in the middle of a heat wave. On July 18, a fire of criminal origin set the Arrée mountains ablaze, ravaging more than 1,700 hectares of moors and peat bogs transformed into fuel by the drought. The village of 218 inhabitants was evacuated for two days and no one really felt like celebrating. “There was a risk of a resumption of fire, it was not reasonable to bring people in”justifies the young woman of 24 years.

The café nevertheless reopened on July 20, to allow the inhabitants of Botmeur to meet and share their experience. Thanks to the work of the firefighters, helped by the surrounding farmers, the material damage was limited to a few melted fences, like those of Isabelle Lebis. A resident of Botcador, the hamlet closest to the blaze, this 58-year-old Botmeurienne began to worry when she saw the fire attack Tuchenn Kador, the mountain that stands west of the village. She was afraid for her horses, hastily evacuated, and her home. The night was short, filled with anguish.

“We didn’t know what was going on, if the house was going to burn or not. From where I was evacuated, in Sizun, I saw the fire advancing on the ridges.”

Isabelle Lebis, resident of the hamlet of Botcador

Of all the inhabitants of Botmeur, Frédéric Lagadec is undoubtedly the one who had the hottest. The flames passed about ten meters from his restaurant in the Croix Cassée, just on the other side of the departmental road. But the 50-year-old, who has experienced other fires in the region, is above all worried about the economic consequences of the disaster in this tourist region. He welcomes us in the room of his establishment, freshly reopened and yet empty at lunchtime. “With the closure of roads and hiking trails, we haven’t worked for a month. For this summer, it’s done”he confides, estimating at 4,500 euros, “maybe more”the loss of turnover.

In the premises of the Addes association, which offers storytelling walks from Botmeur, Ewen Prigent, 23, also does the accounts. A week of work was lost. Some routes, such as the one leading to the top of Tuchenn Kador, had to be redesigned and there are fewer tourists. “Normally, at this time of year, our hikes are full. From the lights, we have between 10 and 20 people per walk compared to 50 in normal times”testifies the guide.

The future of the association, which has five employees, is suspended on possible aid from local authorities. Beyond the economic problem, Ewen Prigent has seen the landscapes he tells his visitors radically change. “At this time of year, the Saint-Michel mountain is usually completely mauve with heather, a superb color”he describes.

The small mountain, famous for its chapel, is black with ashes and we hear “much less birds” in the Monts d’Arrée. “We organize a hike in the early morning, and normally, we hear the first chirps. I did it yesterday, it was total silence”, continues Ewen Prigent. He also remembers this toad found dead on a road: “He had escaped the flames, but when he came out of hiding, the ground was still too hot and he dried in place.”

In the Armorique Regional Natural Park, it is estimated that it is still too early to draw up a complete assessment of the damage caused by fire to the local ecosystem. Yves-Marie Le Guen, coordinator of the Life Landes program, nevertheless reports to “reassuring first observations”such as the rapid regrowth of clumps of molinia, a grass characteristic of heathland with heather and gorse. “This means that the fire must have passed quickly over most areas, it is hoped that the seed bank [présente dans le sol] is not too affected”, analyzes the specialist. He recalls that “Fire is also part of the life of the moor” and counts on a return of heather in the “two or three years”. Yves-Marie Le Guen is however worried about the state of the peat bogs, still unknown for the moment, in which the fire was able to sink. Even more than forests, this ecosystem helps to mitigate global warming by absorbing large quantities of CO2.

According to the first observations, the fauna, in particular the emblematic birds of the park (coulis and Montagu’s Harrier, Hen Harrier), which nest on the ground, have not been affected too much. At this time of year, “the young people are already flying and have been able to leave the area”, explains Yves-Marie Le Guen. The repercussions, however, are “much stronger” on the microfauna – reptiles, amphibians, molluscs, insects – unable to flee.

Beyond the immediate effects, some species are at risk of starving for food in this landscape scorched by the fire and already marked by drought. The area has been on heightened alert since July 16, like the rest of Finistère. The pumping to fill the fire trucks did not help the situation. “Here and there, we have severe droughts and over fairly long areas, this has a definite impact on biodiversity”observes Yves-Marie Le Guen.

On his farm in Botmeur, Claude Berrehar, a 56-year-old dairy farmer, does not hesitate to talk about “disaster”. For lack of grass to eat, its 350 cows have already started winter stocks. “Instead of giving 3.5 tonnes of food a day, we have been giving seven since June”he calculates, in a context where the prices of agricultural materials are soaring, shaken by the war in Ukraine.

While a large part of French farmers have been faced with recurrent droughts for several years, this is the first year that the Berrehar farm has been affected. “Even in 2003, we had grass. The Arrée mountains are wetter and cooler”completes Isabelle, his wife and partner.

Something unthinkable in this heavily watered region, several municipalities are even experiencing problems with the supply of drinking water. This is the case of Botmeur, which had to have 90 m3 of water delivered by tank truck on August 10. A first. “We were absolutely not used to that.testifies Jean-Yves Faujour, first deputy to the mayor. I wouldn’t say that we usually have water that we don’t know what to do with, but almost!” A public meeting was organized to call on everyone to make an effort, resulting in “a significant drop in consumption of 20%”.

Jean-Yves Faujour does not know, however, how long the municipality will be able to counting on the good will of the inhabitants. The chosen one fears a “significant crisis by this winter”.

“Our water tables are not going to recharge until November-December.”

Jean-Yves Faujour, first deputy mayor of Botmeur

To avoid finding itself in this situation, the municipality is considering connecting its network with that of neighboring villages and, possibly, digging new catchments. “It’s a problem that has happened to us once in 46 years, we’re not going to rush either”however, tempers the first assistant.

Despite this overheated summer and the 39.3°C reached in Finistère on the day of the first fire, Jean-Yves Faujour refuses to believe the forecasts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): under the effect of our consumption fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas), heat waves, droughts and lack of water will be repeated more and more often in France. “I am aware of this, but I am also quite skeptical, when I see the inability of meteorologists to predict the weather for a few days”, loose the elected 71-year-old. A confusion between climate and weather, regularly exploited by climatosceptics and corrected many times (see here or there).

His position is in the minority among the inhabitants of Botmeur whom we met. “20 or 30 years ago, when I was watching the Tour de France, all the other regions of France had super beautiful corn and ours were dwarfsremembers Claude Berrehar. Today ours is nice and theirs is toast.” “We don’t have winter here anymore. Before, we had -17°C and snowdrifts of 2 meters, we don’t see that anymore”, adds Frédéric Lagadec, the restaurateur. When he lived near Bordeaux, Michel Desjouis, the president of the associative café, frequented winegrowers forced to adapt to this warmer climate. “I didn’t think for a minute when I came to Botmeur that it was also going to increase and that we would feel global warming right now”recognizes the septuagenarian.

“If you had asked me the question at the beginning of the year, I would have replied: ‘Here, it’s fine.'”

Michel Desjouis, president of the associative café

Today, things are not going so well. Behind the counter of her traveling creperie, located in the center of Botmeur, Josiane Guen does not hesitate to claim “climate refugee”. “We were evacuated manu militari from home, we have seen our land burn and our trade is in danger of sinking”she argues, before attacking politicians. “It’s the result of years of bullshit. You’re here on Richard Ferrand’s former constituency [ancien président de l’Assemblée nationale]. What did he do about it?”

Josiane Guen does not believe in the hypothesis of an awakening after this summer of disasters. “People don’t give a fuckshe snaps. They continue to consume, but let’s go, consume, consume and we will live in ashes.” During the last fire, in 2010, around 500 hectares had burned. This year, according to the estimates of the natural park, the various fires of the summer have destroyed 2,800 hectares of moors, unheard of since 1976.