High Stubble

The Ballons des Vosges Regional Natural Park offers a large variety of natural environments. In itself, the forest covers two-thirds of territory. Still, the Park is rich with a multitude of other resources. High stubble (altitude meadows), peatlands, glacial cirques, rocky cliffs, rock slides, lakes and rivers intermingle harmoniously.

Nearly 5,000 hectares of moors and lawns, locally known as high stubble, cover the main Hautes-Vosges summits.

Above 1,000 meters, the great crest climate is exceptionally rude. The trees suffer from wind, snow and freezing fogs on peaks. These stubbles are not wild: clear forests topped the summits, and had been repeatedly altered by the hand of Man from the end of the Neolithic Age (5,000 to 6,000 years ago) – notably forest fires for clearing. Dwellers first developed a transhumant pastoral economy on these already cleared summits. The past centuries have seen many successive forest clearings, sometimes even on steep hills. These high stubbles shelter: Blueberries, Heathers, Pasque Flowers, Arnica, Vosges Pansies or Fennel from the Alps. Such natural environments, unique in Europe, hail from climatic conditions and Man-Nature relationship over several millenniums.

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