Removing buttercups from Entraygues sur Truyère: a plant management and human awareness operation

Abstract

Buttercup floating meadows installed in the Entraygues sur Truyère crossing on the course of the Truyère were considered nuisances to be eliminated. Two techniques for regulating aquatic plant proliferation (uprooting and reworking of the bottom of the river) were tested in 2002 with the implementation of recolonization monitoring until 2005. In view of this experience, it proved illusory to consider that the two techniques applied could have lasting effectiveness. Despite everything, these experiments made it possible to change the perspective of elected officials and those concerned with the management of the floating meadow. The floating meadows have thus gradually passed from the status of a nuisance to that of a seasonal and acceptable element of the landscape.