Mountain land restoration - Haute Savoie

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

This photographic collection, kept in the archives of the Inrae centre in Grenoble, comes from the École nationale des eaux et forêts (ENEF) in Nancy, which became an internal school of AgroParisTech in 2007.

This corpus of approximately 2,000 photographs was mainly used for instruction purposes. The origin of the transfer from Nancy to Grenoble remains unclear, but it was probably linked to professional mobility.

The photos of the main glacier fronts of the Mont Blanc massif make up a large part of this collection. It also includes photos related to RTM (Restauration des Terrains en Montagne = mountain land restoration) taken by forest service officers during their tours.

At the end of 2024, the photos from the RTM collection of Haute Savoie held in the national archives will also be put online.

On the same subject

  • Fewer sheep, more dairies
    Dairy school at Marignac, 1899, Haute-Garonne
    Mountainous Area

    Fewer sheep, more dairies

    At the end of the 19th century, the policy of restoring land in the mountains imposes the reforestation of traditional rangelands, which entails the expropriation of peasants and prohibits them from grazing their sheep and goats. Faced with this unfavourable situation for mountain dwellers, some foresters encourage them to develop cattle rearing, which enables them to produce butter and cheese, processed products that provide a better income.

  • 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.