Col de la Caumette

Abandoned woodpecker chambers are a boon for small mammals and other birds, such as the boreal owl, which has come from Nordic countries to settle here at altitudes of 800 m. Very discreet, it confines itself to the depths of our forested mountain ranges. It can be identified in March by its sonorous and gentle call. To maintain the species, the Cévennes National Park and the French forestry office protect trees with nesting chambers and old-growth forests from being logged.

The black woodpecker is the largest of our woodpeckers and reappeared in the massif in 1936. Gripping wood with its claw, supported by its very stiff tail, it hammers a large hole (diameter over 30 cm) into the trunk of a beech: its nesting chamber, in which it will reproduce. The hole must be located over 6 m above ground, and its oval entrance must open onto a clear space to facilitate take-off. Abundant food must be available: ant hills; diseased or dead conifers that the black woodpecker will riddle with holes to extract larvae; pine or spruce cones that it will wedge into those holes to pick out the seeds. You may hear its call, a powerful “kree-kree”!

La Caumette pass is on a former salt road. From Antiquity to modern times, salt has been a precious merchandise used for preserving food and tanning leather. Salt has always been traded and taxed during its transport inland from the Mediterranean coast. The sentry box at the pass was built in the 16th or 17th century at a strategic point at the crossroads of several roads, both to levy the salt tax and for surveillance against smuggling. 

Beech is the main species of the Mont Aigoual forest, which consists of a large variety of trees adapted to the diverse soil types and exposure. Like most deciduous trees, beech stumps put out many shoots after a tree has been felled. Foresters select the best of these for timber. Old beeches can attain remarkable sizes, such as the beech in Le Suquet forest in the municipality of Camprieu, a vestige of the original forest that has come down to us through the centuries and has a circumference of six metres and a height of 25!