La promenade Jongkind (Poêlonnerie)

During the summer of 2019, the Nièvre Fishing Federation carried out restoration work on the Villemenant wetland.
This communal site of 7 ha is located on the left bank of the Nièvre d'Arzembouy, between the Poêlonnerie and the Château de Villemenant. The work consisted in rehabilitating two shallow wetland depressions connected to the Poêlonnerie reach and linked by a channel. An old branch of the Nièvre was also de-silted. At the same time, two ponds were dug in the upstream part of the site for educational purposes and independently of the river.
The overall objective of these developments is to develop biodiversity in this type of wetland habitat, which is unfortunately becoming increasingly rare in France. Indeed, the richness of the fauna and flora associated with it is great and multiple (dragonflies, amphibians, fish, water birds, sedge meadows, etc.). Moreover, at a time when the consequences of climate change are becoming more and more visible, wetlands play a role in regulating the flow of watercourses by being a flood expansion zone and by gradually releasing water during periods of drought such as we experienced in 2019.
In order to combine on the one hand the rehabilitation of the aquatic environment and on the other hand, the development of the knowledge of these particular environments during a walk, two pedestrian pedagogical paths were created, one along the reach connecting the Poêlonnerie to the Château de Villemenant with a wooden footbridge and a part on stilts, and the other, more natural (boots advised), to discover the ponds and the wet meadows.
These footpaths will be decorated with educational panels explaining the interest and role of these remarkable environments linked to a valuable historical heritage (castle, wash house, forges).