Val Montina

Since 1 July 1994, Val Montina has been the first Alpine wilderness area in Europe.
The concept of wilderness area developed in the United States, starting from the ideas of Hendrick David Thoreau and John Muir already in the early nineteenth century and means “wild nature not cultivated and not altered by the intervention of human“.

The awareness of the importance of the natural heritage, the increasingly strong exploitation of natural resources by man and the impact exerted by the growing tourist pressure in the first large National Parks< /strong>, gave rise to ideas of protection that took shape in the last century in a movement spread nationwide.
The area is also the Site of Community Importance and Special Protection Area and is fifth included in the Natura 2000 Network.

Val Montina is an impervious valley with few access roads, delimited by the same mountainous amphitheater which only widens further internally, becoming less harsh.

The two backbones that enclose it are:

• To the west is the one that starts from Mount Duranno (2652 m).
• To the east, the one that starts from Cima dei Frati (2355 m).

Both then close towards the Piave.

The waterways that run through the area are the Valmontina torrent, a tributary of the Piave, the Ru de Tia, the Ru de Bosco Nero and the Ru Bosco del Bèlo, all tributaries of the Valmontina torrent, which descend from the valleys of the same name.

Many of the plants present are “glacial relics”, that is, plants that in pre-glacial periods were typical only of the Arctic area, and which following the formation of the ice moved their species to more southern areas, where they then continued to live.
The articulation of the area involves the formation of characteristic environments and microclimates, creating numerous endemisms (i.e. plants typical only of this area) such as:The Campanula Morettiana, the Alpine Poppy and the Scarpetta della Madonna.
As regards the forest formations, starting from the scree we find the mugheta, a formation of the mucous pine: colonizer of these inhospitable environments.
As soon as conditions become more favorable among the Mugo, we find the Larice.
Lower down where the slopes become gentler and the richer soil has evolved we find the Spruce, the Black Pine, the Silver Fir >, the Beech, the System Maple and the Laburnum.

Due to the isolation and limited presence of human, Val Montina presents a high variety of species: Many birds choose this area to reproduction or as a place of transit and rest during long emigrations: in summer you can observe an example of the black kite or cuckoo.
However, the majority of birds are sedentary, such as the Goshawk and the Golden Eagle, the Black Grouse and the Capercaillie >, the Alpine Rampichino etc.
Among the mammals we find: the common and Alpine hare, the squirrel, the marmot, the fox and some ungulates such as the Deer, the Roe Deer and the Chamois are the most represented species in the area.
The Ibex and the Mouflon have recently been introduced.