Mountain land restoration - Alpes-de-Haute-Provence

The map provides access to the geolocated pictures of this collection, with a navigation by municipality. For each municipality, you will find all the photographs taken in that particular area.

Access to the digitized documents

It is a selection of photographs taken in the department that is presented here. The Archives Nationales hold "merely" 1,805 photographs from a much larger collection held by the departmental archives of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (formerly the Basses-Alpes department).

The collection is organised by forest conservation area around a river, a stream or main torrent, defined by the forest services, and then by series (equivalent to a municipality, a forest or a secondary branch of the main torrent) in alphabetical order within an area.

The title of the photograph generally contains a full description of the view.

On the same subject

  • Reforestation at altitude: from species selection to “flying nurseries”
    photographie de Billecard, 1899 : La Bâtie Neuve, pépinière volante de pin cembro, périmètre de Durance-Luye.
    Mountainous Area

    Reforestation at altitude: from species selection to “flying nurseries”

    Starting from 1860, but especially after 1882, reforesting entire areas of the Alps or Pyrenees becomes a national policy, implemented by the mountain land restoration services (RTM). The goal is to reforest in order to stabilize the land and silence the torrents. Reforestation involves selecting species suited to the altitudes and conditions of the mountains. It also requires organizing production in "flying nurseries" or in valleys for the most suitable tree species.

  • The great man of the mountain land restoration: Eugène de Gayffier
    vue du pavillon des forêts / coupe sur l’axe du pavillon des forêts. Beaux-Arts et merveilles de l'industrie à la fin du XIXe siècle (Exposition universelle de 1889) : grand ouvrage illustré historique, encyclopédique descriptif p.469
    Mountainous Area

    The great man of the mountain land restoration: Eugène de Gayffier

    The history of the mountain land restoration (abbreviated RTM in French) services has been strongly marked by a few men with assertive characters and remarkable talents: Eugène de Gayffier was the driving force behind the use of photography in RTM not only to document the works, but also to argue for the need to carry them out.