Name: Dolomites
Surface (ha): 40,682.000
Main land uses and ownership status of the project area:
The heart of the Bosconero district is represented by the Val Tovanella natural state Reserve. The landscape is dominated by continuous coniferous forest, covering 75% of the total surface, from which Dolomitic reliefs, rocky outcrops and screes (14%), high-altitude grasslands, pastures, bogs and smaller meadows (5%) emerge. Small glaciers, snowfields, permanent glacial cirques and alpine lakes are present at high altitude. Agricultural lands are less than 2%.
Although the area is basically wildest and least frequented than the nearby Ampezzo’s Dolomites, summer and winter tourism is absolutely the main economic activity in the area, followed by traditional agriculture, farming and forestry activity. The property is about 40% public (mainly municipal, less state-owned); in many municipality private properties are managed through the traditional form of sharing called “Regole”.
Natural features of the area:
The vegetation grows from submontane to alpine floor. The climate ranges from sub-continental alpine type of the internal valleys to the sub-oceanic prealpine type, with very high average rainfall, higher than 1500 mm / year.
The differentiated geology and the great variety of geomorphological structures, combined with orographic complexity, rarely found in other parts of the Alps, and climate gradients very strong, both in terms of rainfall and thermal, make this area a container of environmental diversity of absolute excellence, with the presence of dozens of different types of habitat. They range from subalpine spruce forests and heather moors of some Cadore valleys, typical of northern environment, to the Longarone oak-hornbeam, typical of Mediterranean environment; the beech woods are still the more widespread
and represented habitat, with various “facies”, even if the oriental style often prevails over the others.
The rocky areas are widespread, both in the form of debris flows, particularly extended where dolomitic substrates prevail, either in the form of the cliffs with chasmophytic vegetation; in most cases in these habitats reside the endemic species that characterize the biogeographical significance in this area.
From a biogeographical point of view, a considerable degree of endemism is found, especially on the left orographic side of the Piave. The Piave valley has in fact made in the Ice Age a significant barrier to the spread of the species and for the isolation of some of themi. The morphological and orographic complexity of the area, together with the associated environmental diversity translates into a high faunal diversity.
The great wilderness of this area, also recognized by UNESCO, has allowed the survival of almost undisturbed forest able to act as refuge and wintering area for Bear (Ursus arctos) and in which faunal communities can develop without interference typically derived from forest management.
The wolf
The large availability of prey, together with low disturbance and the nature of wildlife corridor allow the irregular presence of lynx and wolf and have led to the recent appearance of the Golden Jackal (Canis aureus).
