Rivers, forests, wetlands, etc.: the Semois Valley National Park is made up of exceptionally rich environments that support a wide range of biodiversity.
The Semois Valley National Park, a region of extraordinary BIODIVERSITY
167 km of Semois,
690 km of streams
The Semois Valley National Park is a region crisscrossed by waterways.
Firstly, the Semois is the true backbone of the National Park, running for 167 km from Tintigny to Vresse-sur-Semois.
But the Queen of the Meanders is not the only river to irrigate the region: a multitude of tributaries feed it, improving its biological quality mile after mile. In total, there are almost 690 km of waterways in the region.
Old-growth,
predominantly deciduous FORESTS
After the water comes the forest. It occupies a large majority of the Semois Valley National Park (over 86%). The majority of these are deciduous forests (60%) and old-growth forests (65%).
In addition to the classic oak-beech forests, the region has many characteristic sloping forests, such as the ravine maple groves, but also luzula beech forests, alluvial forests, oak-hornbeam groves and oak-ash groves.
Diverse BIOTOPES
The Semois Valley National Park also boasts a series of rarer environments, forming very interesting biotopes:
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Megaphorbia
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Lean hay meadows
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Wetlands
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Underground caves, vestiges of former slate mining activity
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Etc.
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The high quality of the various biotopes present in the Semois Valley National Park is made evident by the fact that large parts of this region have been placed under protection status (15,883 ha protected by N2000, RNA, RND, RF, ZHIB, classified site) and by the recognition of numerous parcels as sites of biological interest or landscapes of interest (22,342 ha classified as sites of great biological interest, old-growth forest or landscape of interest).
A multitude of animal
and plant SPECIES
Because of the quality and great diversity of these environments, many ordinary and more extraordinary animal and plant species are found in the Semois Valley National Park:
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110 species of breeding birds, i.e. 65% of the species present in Wallonia;
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10 species of amphibians and 6 species of reptiles, i.e. 84% of the species present in Wallonia;
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2 species of rare and protected freshwater molluscs (the pearl mussel and the thick shelled river mussel);
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2 species of fish on the red list;
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19 species of mammals;
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20 species of bats, out of 24 present in Wallonia;
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44 species of odonata (dragonflies and damselflies), i.e. 2/3 of the species present in Wallonia;
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34 species of orthoptera, i.e. 55% of the species present in Wallonia;
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69 species of butterflies, i.e. 77% of the species present in Wallonia;
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188 species of bees, i.e. 46% of the species present in Belgium;
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1,080 species of moths have been recorded in the municipalities of Bertrix, Bouillon, Herbeumont and Vresse, representing more than a third of the species found in Belgium;
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600 species of higher plants;
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20 species of ferns, including several that are fairly rare or rare;
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40 species of brambles, including several species endemic to the Ardennes;
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400 species of bryophytes, out of 720 in Wallonia;
Gaining a better understanding of and protecting this abundant flora and fauna, as well as the environments that allow them to thrive, is one of the priority missions of the Semois Valley National Park.
