FORESTE CASENTINESI – HOME OF THE BLACK WOODPECKER

The following article revealed that the Foreste Casentinesi National Park – located less than two hours from Rome and around one hour from Firenze and Bologna – is not only home of beautiful natural forest but also is one of the most important Italian biodiversity hotspots! This is just another proof about importance and uniqueness of this area which logically belongs to the European Wilderness Network!

Marsh Tit hops from branch to branch opposite of the Ridracoli Waters Ecomuseum. Not far from place of the Black Woodpecker’s nesting place… We learn that nature is astonishing, even where you least expect it. Guided by tour leader Pierpaolo Ceccarelli, participants of this walk discovered an area that, although artificially made to store drinking water for the Romagna region, is very interesting both for its landscape and its wildlife…

However in the next hours our trail  led through beech and spruce-fir trees of colossal dimensions, often ancient-looking, habitat of many forest birds, among them the Black Woodpecker and then to the monumental Campigna spruce-fir forest, home of the tree creeper whose 200-300 breeding pairs make it the most important population in the northern Apennines

The full text of this story can be read in the Conservation News from Italy – Ali Spring