News from the Italian Parks

Within the Life "Praterie" Project , co-financed by the European Commission in the Gran Sasso and Laga Mountains National Park, the "Action C1 - Distribution of the watering points" has been launched: this action provides the renovation of the springs and of the water troughs already existing in the project area, and the building of new troughs for the extensive grazing, with particular attention to the territory of Gran Sasso.

The first intervention regards the spring situated in the locality of Banconi, on the ridge overlooking Vasto (L'Aquila), near the San Franco water source. Last Tuesday, thanks to the generous and decisive collaboration of the State Forestry Corps which made both rangers and means available, a helicopter carried all the necessary things to the place: stones, sand and the necessary tools, such as a concrete mixer, which enabled the persons employed to start the works in order to make the spring available in the summer.

The planning of this and other interventions on the water points has been drawn up by the Technical Urban Service of the Park Authority taking into account the needs of the livestock entrepreneurs, both on the occasion of the 116 monitoring visits carried out by the project veterinarians in the farms and during the meetings of the participatory process for the guidelines of the grazing regulation. The project provides a series of actions and structural offers for the farms, such as enclosures, shelters, rural buildings, watch-dogs, management and veterinary support. Such interventions not only improve the the farms' management, but they also match the common conservation needs with the needs of this field, such as the need of water to make the animals drink, with the aim to promote a good use and the conservation of the grasslands and of their habitats.

Read more (Italian text).