News from the Italian Parks

The resources made available by the Italian Ministry of the Ecological Transition ("Climate" Decree) make it possible to reforest 10 hectares of artificial poplar groves.

In the heart of La Mandria Nature Park there are still 30 hectares of artificial poplar groves.

These are ageing and hybrid poplars planted in the 1990s in Tenuta dei Laghi, before it was purchased by the Piedmont Region. The Park Authority wants to remove them and replace them by natural woodland. Unfortunately, changing the poplar glove into a natural forest is not a spontaneous process: a few seedlings of native species, such as the common hornbeam, the hazelnut tree, the ash and the common oak have grown under the old poplars. In the meantime, the new forest is grazed by deer and fallow deer, while the areas without trees are turned over by wild boars.

The great amount of the regeneration is also made up of invasive exotic species, mainly the northern red oak from America, present in the Park due to extensive reforestation in the 1930s. This oak affects soil fertility and biodiversity in a negative way.

In order to restore the natural forest, it is therefore necessary to remove the poplars and the invasive exotic species, and then plant young plants of the species desired that will make up the new forest, thickening the little renewal of autochthonous species already present.

Thanks to the resources made available by the Italian Ministry of the Ecological Transition, it will be possible to work on the first 10 hectares of poplar groves. Planning is also underway to apply for a second grant to reforest the 20 hectares left.