Réserve naturelle nationale du Pinail, National nature reserve in Vienne, France.
The Réserve naturelle nationale du Pinail is a protected nature reserve in Vienne covering about 142 hectares with roughly 6000 ponds scattered across moorlands. This complex network of water and land habitats developed through centuries of human quarrying work.
For more than a thousand years people extracted millstones from this area, creating thousands of ponds that now define the landscape. This extraction work gradually stopped, but the land it shaped remained as a natural treasure.
The connected Mouliere Forest keeps the memory of millstone extraction alive through exhibits and guided tours that visitors can experience today. These past practices shaped how the land looks and feels now.
The reserve is open to visitors through a 2-kilometer discovery path with information panels and observation points, with no entrance fee. The path makes it easy to explore the different habitats and learn about the area.
The reserve is home to one of the last regional populations of Alcon Blue butterflies in Poitou-Charentes. This rare butterfly species depends on habitats that are carefully protected here.
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