by Hallu » Mon 10 Oct, 2016 7:54 pm
Well as a person living there I would be more nuanced.
It is indeed way more dangerous hiking in France than in Australia or most other places in the world, despite civilization being so close. Especially in the Alps. Too many hikers: it takes a toll on the quality of the tracks, and they're not maintained properly. I'd say June is the most dangerous time to walk. The névés, or persistent snow fields, are very slippery. Deaths occur every year because of them. Also, guardrails on dangerous sections are extremely rare in the Alps. At best you get a cable bolted to the side to help you. But nevermind that. What I think we're lacking most is information. Many walks are dangerous yet there's no warning at the start of the walk. Just some words of caution at the beginning would be nice. I'm thinking of a hike at the lac du glacier d'Arsine for example. There a section that's one of those "one wrong step, you die", with a crumbling path consisting of slippery rocks next to a waterfall, and you see families, kids going there. Also for névés, you could educate people on crampons, how they're a must to carry in late spring hiking. But then when you talk to experienced hikers, or people who do the markings for a walk, they keep saying "they should know better", and that pisses me off. But it's in the nature of the French people to be daredevils... That's why so many do extreme sports. It's also no wonder the French expression "laissez-faire" attitude has become part of the English language now...
As for the people taking care of the land it's not true everywhere. In the middle ages, the forests were simply removed alltogether for agriculture. It's especially true in the centre of France (massif central). They replanted trees during the 19th century because of massive landslides due to erosion. The vast majority f the forests you see in France are 200 years old or less. Even in national parks. There's only a tiny pocket of prestine forest in Bourgogne. In the Alps, the treeline used to be around 2300/2400 m. Now it's closer to 1900/2000 m. For example, the Vercors plateau used to be covered with trees. They cut them all for sheep grazing. They killed all the predators (bears, wolves, lynx, vultures, eagles) and wiped out most of the mountain goats. The bouquetin came back from Italy, so did the wolf. But depite EU laws saying the wolf is protected, France is right now giving out authorizations to sheep farmers to shoot them. The numbers of kills are supposed to be limited, but each time the farmers protests, the quota is raised up... This is at its worst in the Mercantour range where they kill around 40 wolves a year, about 2/3 of the total population there. And bears are a far cry from coming back to the French Alps (or even the Italian Alps). They also use big dogs called patous to protect the sheep, and those dogs are extremely agressive, attacking people that come too close, whereas the wolves never attack humans. Only the vultures are doing a promissing comeback. Bouquetins ? They are ok the some areas, but they've just killed hundreds of them because a couple carried a disease that could be transmitted to cows... Despite the fact that scientists told the government a vaccination campaign would be the solution and culling would simply spread the disease... So when you say "respecting rather than exploiting it" it's not really true. Sure there are admirable aspects of this: cheese, alpines meadows with their flowers, seeing sheep or cows during a walk, the whole culture and spirit of mountain living, but there's a dark side to all this. And I haven't even mentioned ski resorts...