Add to ORKGThe upper catchment of the Yonne River is nowadays usually considered as having been scarcely impacted by human activity. At the Seine basin scale, the gravel bed streams flowing down the small forested massif of the Morvan are even considered as of high ecological quality. However, this perception of the river changes completely once one looks back to the recent past. Indeed, these streams have been subject to intensive industrial activity for more than 300 years, between the 16th and early 20th centuries, as Paris’ need for timber fuel amplified. The Yonne River and all of its tributaries were heavily modified to facilitate the transportation of timber logs towards Paris through floating on the Morvan’s dense network of streams and the Yo...