Wild boars and otters roam almost uncontrolled in the Oglio North Park, creating problems not only for the ecosystem but also (and above all) for the farmers of the numerous neighboring companies, effectively devastating their crops. Luigi Ferrari, number one of the reserve, launches a new appeal after the first, very similar one, had failed over a year ago: «The proliferation of nutria is now unmanageable - he continues -. You cannot rely on volunteers and expect them to do all the work themselves, harassed by bureaucracy and moreover without compensation. A size is needed for each culled specimen. The provinces listen to us and legislate in this sense, as others have already done.
We also need a hand to take a census of wild boars. We started with the first inspections of our Voluntary Ecological Guards but now it's time to coordinate with Cremona, Bergamo and Brescia. Don't leave us alone ». In the park there is an infesting fauna emergency. And the thing that bothers the vertices of the nature reserve in the heart of Lombardy the most is feeling more and more isolated. «Just think of the fact that many - Ferrari complains - call them 'the otters, the wild boars or even the fallow deer of the Park'. As if we had introduced them. Nothing more wrong". And if the fallow deer, once the problem of road crossings is removed, cause few problems, the same certainly cannot be said of the pigs and above all of the beavers.
The latter are the real 'plague': «At the current pace, with containment on a purely voluntary and free basis, we will perhaps be cutting down 1 or 2% of the total population. At this rate, eradication will soon become impossible. I already said that at the time and I haven't changed my mind. You need a size. And the ideal would also be to streamline the bureaucracy. The idea that whoever takes care of it should go to recover the cage, register, take care of disposal and a thousand other practices keep people away from the initiative. Which, we recall, is to protect the ecosystem ". The question of wild boars is not much more rosy: «In the last issue of the Gev several ad were seen Azzanello. We are starting to map the area but we cannot do it alone. You need a work table. Do not ignore us ».
Not only the two main threats under the lens. The problems of the Park, certainly of different entities and with different needs answers, also come from the river and from the woods on the border with the state road that passes through Villacampagna and Genivolta. It is not new that in the Oglio, unfortunately, the torpedoes are the masters. The super predator, at least in this case actively opposed with the fishing financed by Milan, has been making a big deal of trout, barbel, chub and all the other native species of the area for years. In this war, food massacre has also found a precious ally in the so-called 'killer shrimp'. To limit the damage, the Municipality of Orzinuovi has recently inaugurated a fish tank where the eggs of the specimens at risk can be preserved. As far as deer are concerned, the question is a bit more complex. Shooting them down, the Park reiterated, is out of the question. To enclose them, almost impossible. In the meantime, as with wild boars, they will have to be counted. According to initial estimates, there may already be just under 100 (The Province of Cremona).