Repairing nature: when humans recreate a stream

10 December 2024Photos and text: Benoit Dupont18 images

Réparer la nature : quand l’homme recrée un ruisseau

01 / 18 · 10 December 2024Benoit Dupont / Collectif DR

It is September 10, 2024 in La Broque, a small town in the Alsatian Vosges. In the pouring rain, teams from an environmental consultancy and a construction company are hard at work on a stream restoration project.

The Albet, a tributary of the Bruche, is a small stream like so many others, yet it is the subject of an ambitious project. As it crosses the town, its floodplain has undergone major changes over time, degrading the habitat associated with the stream.

These changes, intended to protect homes from the stream overflowing, have gradually constrained the course of the stream and wiped out a large part of its flora and fauna. These developments, in particular the installation of culverts, initially intended to protect people, tend to speed up the flow, restrict drainage and increase the risk of debris jams…. and ultimately, of flooding.

The presence of public facilities such as schools, a swimming pool and a middle school in this area led public stakeholders to begin a hydromorphological restoration of this river, with the aim of reclaiming this natural environment neglected by the population. In addition to restoring meanders and “berms” in the streambed, the redevelopment diversifies the flows and allows the banks to be replanted with trees, which will also encourage the return of wildlife.

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