Conservation of Apennine beech forests with Abies alba Apennine beech forests with Abies alba SIC Pigelleto - M. Amiata

Beech-woods populations with abies alba are not very common in the mountains of the Tuscan Appennines, and those where autochthonous abies alba grows are quite rare and limited to rather small areas.

In the Site of Community Interest (SIC) which is the object of the project there is a beech-wood with autochthonous abies alba, which is still conserved due to an occasional management which kept this conifer more and more marginally. These lands are now abandoned, since when the minor discontinuous utilisation which was carried out in the past stopped, and this resulted in the cancellation of the processes of natural regeneration of abies alba. Moreover, as plantations with silver firs of unknown origin were recently executed, a serious risk of genetic erosion of the relict autochthonous population may occur.

In the SIC there are also habitats of beech-wood with taxus and ilex, where especially the yews are reduced to a few ones because of the cuttings which were made in the past, in order to use this wood in cabinet-making. Thus it is necessary to increase the expansion of this species, replanting it in the beech-woods from where it disappeared.

In the land of the SIC there are also some special interesting species, such as Salamandrina terdigitata which, according to recent studies, is threatened by the reduction of adequate environment and disturbed by management activities.

The aim of the project LIFE is to strengthen the presence of abies alba in the beech-wood, encouraging a prolonged persistence of this species, and also to reduce the risk of genetic erosion due to free pollination through plantations of allochthonous silver firs.

The following actions will be performed:

• survey of SIC naturalistic elements
• analysis of genetic characters of abies alba population;
• survey on pathologies affecting the old population of abies alba, and the level of diffusion of such pathologies;
• purchase of private lands including Appennine Beech-woods with dominance of Abies alba and Mixed woods of mesophile broadleaved in Tilio-Acerion forests of slopes, screes and ravines;
• specific silvicultural operations, aiming at clearing regeneration groups of abies alba;
• extensive silvicultural operations aiming at renaturalizing plantations through autochthonous broadleaved;
• picking and vegetative reproduction of seedlings of taxus baccata
• mini-plot establishment to reintroduce vegetatively reproduced taxus baccata in beech-woods, starting from existing trees;
• restoration of old drinking-throughs and springs which are no longer in use, in a state of neglect and unserviceable;

• special actions aiming at awakening to the results achieved, and at their spreading (meetings, signs, naturalist guide, multimedia documentation).

• 35 hectares of beech-wood with abies alba, with protected regeneration groups;
• 15 hectares of renaturalized plantations, source of genetic pollution;
• 20 hectares of reconstituted beech-wood with taxus;
• 5 sites of recreated or restored wet environment;