Description
In the decades preceding the establishment of the Biotope, this area underwent considerable alterations due to various anthropic activities, mainly sand quarries, extensive earth moving, military manoeuvres, motocrossing, intensive hunting and indiscriminate grazing of sheep.
With the protection restriction, the area is gradually regaining its original natural character and recovering its ecological potential, also thanks to the implementation of important environmental restoration works. In 2006, given the high naturalistic interest of the area, the biotope was enlarged with the publicly-owned land located at the confluence of the Adige and Noce rivers, one of the river environments along the Adige river shaft with the greatest environmental and faunal diversity.
What determines the eco-systemic richness of the area is the presence, alongside the frankly fluvial environment of the Adige River, of a large confluence zone of a large tributary, the Noce, with markedly different hydrological characteristics and of an important drainage ditch (Fossa della Nave) that conveys resurgence waters into this important hydrographic junction.
The boundaries of the biotope thus enlarged include the western half of the stretch of the Avisio Torrent that runs in the Adige Valley, including all its floodplain area defined by the 19th-century embankments; a stretch of the Adige River located between the southernmost point of confluence in it of the Avisio, to the south, is also included, while in the northern direction it extends as far as the confluence of the Noce Torrent.
The naturalistic interest of the biotope is mainly centred on the presence of an extraordinary wealth of fauna, which finds its motivation in its location at the bottom of the valley, at the junction between two important - and very different - river environments.
In short, one can consider this reserve as a sort of 'natural oasis' located along a completely altered valley floor, and moreover at a point where fauna can take advantage of the abundance of resources that always accompanies running water.
Numerous fish species live in these waters, despite the problems of both the Adige and the Avisio.
Amphibians are present here with various species, some of them locally rare, such as the yellow-bellied toad (Bombina variegata) and the emerald toad (Bufo viridis); they breed in the ponds along the watercourse and, above all, in the large ponds built from scratch by the Autonomous Province of Trento.
There are also numerous species of reptiles, both lizards and snakes, that occupy the various environments of the protected area, both wet and dry.
But it is among the birds that we find the greatest reasons for interest, since the rich nesting avifauna includes water-related entities that have become very rare due to the indiscriminate alteration of water bodies. These include the kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), the wagtail (Motacilla flava), the dipper (Cinclus cinclus) and two species of wading birds that lay their eggs directly on the pebbly shore: the little ringed plover (Charadrius dubius) and the little piper (Actitis hypoleucos).
The biotope also constitutes a valuable resting, refuge and feeding area for all those bird species (and they are numerous!) that use the Atesina valley as a preferential route during their migrations; finally, even in winter, the area fulfils its important function for birdlife, since many birds, including ducks, geese and grey herons (Ardea cinerea), stay here for longer or shorter periods.
Visiting facilities
- Visiting path
Studies
- ichthyofauna monitoring
- management plan
- naturalistic and cadastral definition project
- fauna study
- periodic avifauna monitoring
Projects in which the Reserve has been involved
Némos project
see below link to project page