The Ballons des Vosges Regional Nature Park ( French: ''Parc naturel régional des Ballons des Vosges'') is a
protected area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...
of woodland,
pasture
Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing.
Types of pasture
Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...
,
wetland
A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...
regions
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...
of
Grand Est
Grand Est (; ) is an Regions of France, administrative region in northeastern France. It superseded three former administrative regions, Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine, on 1 January 2016 under the provisional name of Alsace-Champagne-A ...
and
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (; , sometimes abbreviated BFC; Arpitan: ''Borgogne-Franche-Comtât'') is a region in eastern France created by the 2014 territorial reform of French regions, from a merger of Burgundy and Franche-Comté. The new region ...
in northeastern
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. The area was officially designated as a
regional natural park
A regional nature park or regional natural park ( or PNR) is a public establishment in France between local authorities and the Cabinet of France, French national government covering an inhabited rural area of outstanding beauty in order to protec ...
in 1989.
187
communes
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
belonging to the
departments
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
* Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
of
Haut-Rhin
Haut-Rhin (); Alsatian: ''Owerelsàss'' or '; , . is a department in the Grand Est region, France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine; its name means Upper Rhine. Haut-Rhin is the smaller and less pop ...
,
Vosges
The Vosges ( , ; ; Franconian and ) is a range of medium mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single geomorphological unit and ...
,
Haute-Saône
Haute-Saône (; Frainc-Comtou: ''Hâte-Saône''; English: Upper Saône) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of northeastern France. Named after the river Saône, it had a population of 235,313 in 2019.
and
Territoire de Belfort
The Territoire de Belfort (; "Territory of Belfort") is a department in the northeastern French region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. In 2020 it had a population of 140,120.''Comprendre le parc'', official web site on /ref> It is one of the largest and most populated French regional parks. A wide range of
habitat
In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...
s available in the park benefit a variety of wildlife such as
boreal owl
The boreal owl (''Aegolius funereus'') or Tengmalm's owl is a small owl in the "true owl" family Strigidae. It is known as the boreal owl in North America and as Tengmalm's owl in Europe after Swedish naturalist Peter Gustaf Tengmalm or, more r ...
,
lynx
A lynx ( ; : lynx or lynxes) is any of the four wikt:extant, extant species (the Canada lynx, Iberian lynx, Eurasian lynx and the bobcat) within the medium-sized wild Felidae, cat genus ''Lynx''. The name originated in Middle Engl ...
,
peregrine falcon
The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known simply as the peregrine, is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan bird of prey (raptor) in the family (biology), family Falconidae renowned for its speed. A large, Corvus (genus), cro ...
Dianthus superbus
''Dianthus superbus'', the fringed pink or large pink, is a species of ''Dianthus'' native to Europe and northern Asia, from France north to arctic Norway, and east to Japan; in the south of its range, it occurs at high altitudes, up to 2,400 m. ...
'',
cranberry
Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus ''Oxycoccus'' of the genus ''Vaccinium''. Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines up to long and in height; they have slender stems that are not th ...
and ''
Drosera
''Drosera'', which is commonly known as the sundews, is one of the largest genus, genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. 2 volumes. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucil ...
''.
Image gallery
;Landscapes
File:Wormsa 3 -1600x1200-.jpg,
File:Vue sur la vallée.jpg,
File:Vue des vallées vosgiennes depuis le sommet du Mont Hohneck.jpg, Mont Hohneck
File:Schlossberg (Hohenburg).JPG, Twilight
File:2020-05 - Étangs de Servance - 01.jpg, Landcap of Plateau des Mille Étangs
Château de Lœwenstein.jpg, Viewpoint Château de Lœwenstein
File:Baerenthal-étang.png, Baerenthal dam
;Culture
File:France Alsace Bas Rhin Fleckenstein 02.jpg, Fleckenstein ruins
File:Graufthal Blick von den Felsenwohnungen 4.jpg, Graufthal village
File:Graufthal 05.JPG, Cave-houses in Graufthal
File:LaPetitePierre 07.JPG, Château de La Petite-Pierre
File:Maison du Parc-Munster.JPG, A permanent exhibition in the
Munster
Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...
park's headquarters
File:Périmètre PNR des Ballons des Vosges.png, Map of the nature park
Flora of the Vosges massif
The flora of the Vosges massif is distributed across three principal altitudinal zones, namely the Collinearity, collinean, Montane ecosystems, montane, and subalpine levels. The collinean zone extends up to approximately 500 meters in altitude. ...