Description
The Environment/Fauna
The state property, created at the beginning of the 1900s through expropriation for military purposes, today has a total surface area of 782 hectares, with a clear prevalence of pasture and meadow-grazing environments and a wooded surface area of about 230 hectares, partially derived from reforestation carried out in the pre- and post-war period (Great War).
The particular geographic location and the spectacular nature of many environments, determine an important touristic, recreational and sporting value of the area, along with productive and protection functions.
All this is taken into account in silvicultural management, aimed at improving the structure and stability of the stands, with targeted choices for the most anthropised areas.
The fauna present in the State Forest consists of a rich variety of species typical of Alpine ecosystems, including large carnivores. In the Viote Plain there is also an interesting peat bog that preserves rare botanical varieties as well as floristic and preglacial endemisms of invertebrate fauna.
The Tre Cime del Monte Bondone Integral Nature Reserve
Established in 1968, it covers an area of 185 hectares at an altitude ranging from 1580 metres at Viote to 2176 metres at Cornetto.
In 1500, the territory of the present Reserve belonged, like the entire Bondone mountain (then called Monte Vason), to the Prince-Bishop of Trento, who reserved the exclusive right to hunt. Later, as thanks to the Bondone community for contributing to the construction of Trento Cathedral and the supply of firewood, the Bishop proceeded to subdivide the mountain, giving it in stages to the communities of Sopramonte, Sardagna, Garniga, Cavedine, Baselga di Bondone and Vigolo Baselga.
In the 19th century, the Viote basin was transformed into mowable pastures and meadows and cattle breeding began. Later, the area became a strategic Austrian base and saw the construction of the typical stone barracks.
The Reserve occupies a valley of glacial origin that from the Viote plain reaches the Three Peaks: Doss d'Abramo (2,140 m), Cornetto (2,176 m) and Cima Verde (2,102 m). The basin is made up of a substratum of sedimentary rocks (calcareous marls and marly schists) from the Eocene period covered by abundant moraine deposits of glacial origin. Higher up, on the Tre Cime, white and red limestones from the Jurassic and clayey limestones from the Cretaceous, rich in fossils, prevail. Three watercourses flow through the protected area: the Rio Val Magna, which descends into the valley and is called Roggia di Garniga, the Roggia di Sopramonte and the Roggia dei Molini, which flow into the Torrente Vela.
The forest area is represented by irregular spruce forests. In recent years, thanks to a naturalistic type of forest management (which has supplanted the outdated monoculture type), the spruce forests are slowly converting into more structured and mixed stands with the presence of larch, silver fir, broadleaf and stone pine. In Val Magna and in the locality of Pozze there are natural spruce and larch forests with some silver fir, beech and rowan, interrupted here and there by meadow clearings. In the upper part of the Reserve, mugo thickets with a few scattered specimens of larch take over.
The most characteristic aspect of the Reserve's vegetation cover is undoubtedly the herbaceous flora: precious endemisms such as the Common Bonarota(Paederota bonarota), the ArgentineGeranium (Geranium argenteum) and the Rock Raponzolo(Physoplexis comosa) can be found, along with other important species such as Paeonia officinalis, Anemone alpina, Anemone montana and many others.
The highest part of the Reserve is occasionally frequented by roe deer, which, however, prefer the Viote basin where they find food in abundance; among the rocks of the Tre Cime, the presence of chamois has been ascertained. Bird species include the capercaillie, black grouse, imperial crow, alpine chough and golden eagle.
Also worth mentioning is the presence of the "Viote del Monte Bondone Alpine Botanical Garden", a scientific, didactic and informative structure managed by the Muse of Trento and dedicated to the floral species of the Alpine arc.
In the informed Forest
The management of the Forest is entrusted to the Provincial Agency for State Forests - Adige Sector
Access
From Trento via Provincial Road 85 of Monte Bondone.
From Lagolo (Sarca Valley) and the Val di Cavedine, go up the SP 85 road to the Viote.
From Aldeno and the Adige Valley, along the SP 25 Garniga road, climb towards the Viote plain, passing through Cimone and Garniga.