The peatlands

The park of Pilat includes a few peatlands situated on the high plateau and that will be very soon protected by the law. Two of them have already been worked on. The biggest one is situated near Gimel, close to the place so-called "Croix de Caille".

Just under the peatlands lay the wet grasslands that fill the bottoms of the valleys. They result from the occupation of a lake or a piece of water by a specific vegetation that the difficult climatic conditions and the wet soils prevent from decomposing. Then the peat starts to form, filling more and more the hole. Vegetal pieces accumulate there, especially the sphagnum that represent the greatest part of those vegetals. Sphagnum is a special king of moss that can suck water as a sponge.

Low temperatures, frequent frost, soil poor in nutritive elements are the main caracteristics of the sites were peat can form. A particular fauna and flora develop there. The peatland of Gimel is especially interesting because of the touristic arrangements that have been made there. Walkers can visit it from some wooden footbridges and have explanations about the place and how to protect and preserve it on information desks all along the way.