Save Sensitive Natural Area, étangs de Passins lakes sector

Arandon
38510 Arandon-Passins

In the past, this site was an alkaline swamp through which the Save flowed. Locals came here to harvest the hay from the wetlands and collect peat to heat their houses.

Today, following the re-routing of the Save and the industrial exploitation of peat for horticulture, the swamp disappeared, giving way to a succession of lakes on both sides of the Save.

There are more than 745 species surveyed, some with strong heritage value, like the Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea), the Least bur-reed (Sparganium minimum), and the European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis).

The landscape is marked by its geological history. One of its peculiarities is the presence in a same place of a rocky outcrop polished and streaked by the Würm glacier, of moraine deposits and of ancient peat, which allow the history of the last glaciation to be traced.