The day after the fire that ravaged 340 hectares of the Gardiole massif between Gigean and Frontignan in Hérault this Sunday, August 18, 2024, the flames give way to a devastated landscape. What impact will the disaster have on the fauna and flora of the massif? Here is the opinion of an environmental activist who knows the Gardiole well.
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After an entire afternoon and night of fighting, the fire was put out by the 600 firefighters mobilized to deal with the monster blaze that ravaged the Gardiole massif between Gigean and Frontignan in Hérault.
Some homes were evacuated but there were no injuries. On the other hand, the flora is a sad sight.
Black expanses dotted with green spots. This Monday, August 19, 2024, seen from the sky from the helicopter of the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service (SDIS 34), this is the new landscape that the Gardiole massif leaves to be seen after the violent fire that devastated it.
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Aerial view the day after the fire that ravaged 326 hectares of the Gardiole massif between Gigean and Frontignan. Monday, August 19, 2024. • ©Sdis 34
Faced with these charred expanses, it is difficult not to worry when thinking about the fauna present there and the consequences of the disaster on the flora.
However, according to Jean-Paul Salasse, co-president of the association “Les Écologistes de l’Euzière”, “The fire has had almost no impact on the flora and fauna of the massif.“, despite the damaged vegetation.
The birds have flown away, the lizards, snails and eggs are deep in the ground. Biologically, a fire on August 15th doesn’t matter much.
Jean-Paul Salasse – co-president of the association Ecologists of Euzière
According to the member of the association, for years, the massif has been a regular victim of fires: “lGardiole has burned thousands of times, it has always recovered“.
If this fire does not really have an impact on the fauna and flora, as the environmentalist claims, then why does this charred postcard appeal so much?
“This landscape refers to our collective imagination which thinks that if the fire started it is our fault.“, explains the expert on the massif for 40 years, before adding: “What is annoying is when it is the trees that we have planted that burn, it is a question of landscape importance“.
It’s not an ecological disaster, it’s a landscaping nuisance that costs a lot of money.
Jean-Paul Salasse – co-president of the association Ecologists of Euzière
The Gardiole massif, wedged between two urban areas, Sète and Montpellier, belongs half to the state and half to private owners.
Two thousand hectares of state and municipal forest are therefore managed by the National Forestry Office (ONF), while the rest is managed by private individuals.
It is a marvel, in terms of history, botany and fauna, but it is not well managed.
Jean-Paul Salasse – co-president of the Ecologists of Euzière
A lack of non-centralized management that the environmentalist points out, before denouncing a lack of resources deployed by the state or poorly used, “If we had put these means into prevention with green islands or shepherds, we could have reduced the damage: as soon as there is a maintained vine, the fire stops to the nearest meter“.
The Gardiole massif is great but almost no one knows about it. Locally, scrubland like this is everywhere: 350,000 hectares of this landscape is a bit ordinary. But when you look more closely, 5,000 hectares in one piece, there is not much.
Jean-Paul Salasse – co-president of the Ecologists of Euzière
“It’s a marvel, but we don’t do anything with it.“, concludes Jean-Paul Salasse.
“Some will say that we should reforest and cut down dead trees, but it is absolutely not necessary, because it will be expensive while insects will very quickly come and occupy them and make them fall!“ he exclaims when asked what’s next.
Replanting means replanting conifers that will burn in 10 years or even before: then, we would have to do a kind of collective mourning of the landscape.
Jean-Paul Salasse – co-president of the Ecologists of Euzière
“Above all, we must do nothing, let nature work and in 5 years we will see nothing more.“, concludes Jean-Paul Salasse for whom “the scrubland is in some way doomed to burn“.
