Although it is part of a desire to respond to the threat weighing on the species, the Ballons des Vosges regional natural park project has encountered opposition from several environmental protection associations.
They were able to take flight in a new landscape. Nine capercaillie captured in Norway were released on Friday April 26 in the Grand Ventron nature reserve, a Vosges massif straddling Alsace and Lorraine. Within five years, the Ballons des Vosges regional natural park, which is leading the operation, hopes to reintroduce into its territory 200 of these large gallinaceans emblematic of the region, at the rate of 40 birds per year. Objective : prevent the disappearance of the capercaillie, critically endangered in the Vosges.
In chorus, the associations SOS Massif des Vosges, Vosges nature environment, Oiseaux nature, Avenir et patrimoine 88 as well as Landscape nature and Heritage of the Vosges mountains cry out for a false good idea. If their arguments did not convince administrative justice, which launched this controversial rescue mission on Friday, they however raise the question of maladaptation, at a time when ecosystems are increasingly weakened by global warming and human activities.
A bird that likes the cold
“While today, we are reintroducing trees that come from the south to acclimatize them to the Vosges, (…) we are looking for animals in the Far North to re-acclimatize them, where the climate is warming up”railed Dominique Humbert, president of SOS Massif des Vosges, on the air of BFM Alsace. “It’s absurd !” For the associations opposed to the operation, the evolution of temperatures in the Vosges is in fact not compatible with the survival of the capercaillie, a lover of the cold.
“In recent years, the Vosges massif has experienced early springs, destroying broods that had become early, with the return of late frosts and heavy, long precipitation”abounds Vosges nature environment in a press release. “With episodes of drought, which unfortunately become recurrent, the ripening of the blueberry can be stopped and the food resources of the capercaillie greatly impacted”continues the association, recalling that“a long enough snow cover is vital for its survival”.
A warming ecosystem
According to a study on the evolution of the climate and snow cover commissioned by the Grand Est region and carried out by Météo-France in 2023, the winter temperature, from December to April, should, under the effect of global warming, record by 2060 an increase of between +1.1°C and +1.9°C compared to the period 1985-2006, according to the various IPCC scenarios. At the end of the century, the range extended from +1.2°C to +4°C, far, very far from the capercaillie standards. A climate future “uncertain” Who “will have to be carefully monitored within the framework of this project”, notes the Ballons des Vosges regional natural park in its press release (PDF).
From February 2023, the Regional Scientific Council for Natural Heritage of the Grand Est region, requested by the Ballons des Vosges regional natural park, thus issued an opinion “unfavorable” to the introduction of capercaillie from the north.
“We cannot eliminate from the outset the hypothesis according to which (…) the Vosges ecosystem could, in the coming years, due to global warming, prove unsuitable for maintaining a capercaillie population .”
The Regional Scientific Council for Natural Heritage of the Grand Est regionin his opinion
And this in particular “lack of the possibility for this species to climb to altitude in the Vosges”. In its file, the regional natural park highlights the “relative climatic ‘plasticity'” of the species, but concedes that the capercaillie “may suffer the effects of an alteration of its habitat itself impacted by climate change”.
A region less and less calm
The capercaillie is not the only one to abandon the Vosges due to lack of cold and snow. If the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists Currently 756 endangered species in the Grand Est, tourism stakeholders regularly point out the role of humans (and more particularly of skiers) in the local economic ecosystem. To compensate for uncertain winter seasons, mid-mountain resorts are increasingly turning to “nature” tourism that is better distributed throughout the year but which could, according to opponents, harm an essential criterion for the survival of the capercaillie: calm.
Thus, in its opinion of February 2023, the Regional Scientific Council for Natural Heritage of the Grand Est region asks the question the increase in human use of the massif, linked “for example to the development of tourism/leisure activities ‘4 seasons'”. He also points out “the future of forests, silvicultural practices, increasing fire risks and the management measures that will necessarily result from this”.
For Dominique Humbert, quoted by BFM Alsace, the reintroduction of the species must therefore be accompanied bye “important measures“of cohabitation with man, such as cutting off access for motorized vehicles to the road which crosses the Gazon du Faing for a period stretching until mid-July, and not only in winter as currently. “This would considerably improve the home territory of these birds, which requires peace and quiet”he believes, recalling that the noise “contributes to their disappearance”.
A risky bet rather than inaction
For its part, the Ballons des Vosges regional natural park ensures that the project is accompanied by ecosystem restoration work, but also “actions to improve tranquility [canalisation de la fréquentation, renforcement de la signalétique, plan de circulation et fermeture d’accès]” or even “the establishment of a working group with socio-economic stakeholders to integrate environmental issues into practices”.
If some believe that this operation is doomed to failure, the authorities undertake to try everything so that the Vosges continue to welcome capercaillies, even if it means embarking on a bet worth 200,000 euros per year, from envelopes of the state and the region. “The park as a structure cannot let a species disappear without reacting. This is what motivates us first and foremost.”confides Laurent Séguin, president of the Ballons des Vosges regional natural park, to France 3 Lorraine.