Elena Pearce, former postdoc and now affiliated researcher at ECONOVO, is currently cycling from London to Singapore. Along the way, she’ll be sending occasional updates to ECONOVO reflecting on the wild nature, biodiversity and novel ecosystems she encounters en route!
The Loire, known as France’s last wild river, is a cool example of wild nature and human life coexisting in close proximity. Passing through major cities like Orléans, Tours, and Nantes, it remains largely untamed, shaped by seasonal floods and shifting sandbanks. Between 2018 and 2025, the LIFE Loire en Forez project has been restoring a 30 km stretch, remobilising sediments and improving natural flow, while efforts since 2020 to remove groynes are rebalancing the riverbed.
Restoration of secondary water bodies connected to the river is enhancing biodiversity and reconnecting communities with revitalised waterways. Meanwhile, Atlantic salmon, long absent, are returning through reintroduction efforts. The Loire is a beautiful place, and a great reminder that wildness can thrive even in the heart of human settlements.
