Description
The Local Reserve was established in 2024 on the initiative of the local community to protect Lake Tenno and the surrounding area.
The main aim is to protect the beauty and richness of the environment of Lake Tenno, which has special characteristics:
- It is located at an altitude of about 570 metres, in a natural basin at the foot of Mount Misone. It has the appearance of an Alpine lake, but is influenced by the nearby Lake Garda.
- It has a tributary (the Rio Secco) and a main spring, but no surface outlet. The water seeps through the ground and flows into the Magnone stream, which then forms the Varone Falls.
- No vegetation grows on the rocky bottom: this is one of the reasons why the colour of the lake is so intense.
- Over the course of the year, the water level varies considerably, even by 10 to 15 metres. In summer, it tends to lower - so much so that the island becomes a peninsula to be reached on foot; in autumn and spring, it can rise until it submerges the path and a large part of the beach.
- Its appearance has remained virtually unchanged for over 100 years. There are only three dwellings on its banks; human presence is mainly felt in the regularly mown fields and meadows.
- The absence of polluting factors makes the water of Lake Tenno particularly clean.
These conditions make Lake Tenno a rich and varied ecosystem in which various animal (including rare species of amphibians) and plant species live.