Description
The reserve includes fully protected areas, corresponding to wetlands, and buffer zones in which certain human activities are permitted.
The large presence of water is explained by the origin of the biotope. The two basins and the entire Valle di Cei were shaped by glaciers that left a conspicuous moraine cover on the valley floor. Much later, landslides falling from Monte Bondone caused a dam, as a result of which a single lake was formed in the entire basin: today, a large part of the original basin has dried up and, in the larger depressions, is filled with peat. In 1975, scholars carried out analyses on the C14 (radioactive carbon) contained in samples of beech wood (Fagus sylvatica), taken from logs submerged in Lake Cei but rooted to the bottom (therefore grown before the lake was formed), and were thus able to date the origin of the lake to 1250 AD (±50 years).
The biotope presents an extraordinary wealth of plant situations. Extensive forests, dominated by beech trees, which are very picturesque, cover the hillsides, but by far the most precious elements are the wetlands, authentic treasure troves full of 'botanical jewels'.
Lake Cei is beautiful to the eye precisely because of its varied ecological structure, with large laminations of water lilies (Nymphaea alba) and nymphaea (Nuphar luteum), scirpeti, sedge thickets, small patches of reeds and a very indented shoreline. The rarest and most precious species hosted is Iris sibirica, a beautiful blue iris found in Trentino in only one other location besides this one. Species worthy of protection grow in the peaty valley of Cei, such as the Narrow-leaved Eryophorum (Eriophorum angustifolium), the Pinguicula (Pinguicula vulgaris), small carnivorous plants and a small and very rare willow, Salix repens. Finally, in the pools that open up, another small and rare carnivorous plant, Utricularia minor, can be found, which lives submerged, emerging only to flower.
The coexistence of various types of environments, both terrestrial and aquatic, allows the protected area to host a very diverse fauna. Although the forests are home to a large number of species, some of them quite valuable, it is the fauna of the various wetlands that holds the record of interest. From the delicate crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes), to the fish present in the larger basins, to the rare Amphibians (including the tree frogHyla intermedia), to the Reptiles, to the Birds and Mammals, all the zoological groups testify with their richness to the existence of an area that is still intact and of outstanding naturalistic importance.
Visiting facilities
- Visiting path
