In Stelvio National Park there are too many deer and the Province of Bolzano wants to restore ecological order with withdrawals. In fact, hunters, starting from this autumn, will eliminate the specimens considered too many. "They do too much damage to the forest, we must re-establish the natural balance ", announced the president of the Province of Bolzano, Arno Kompatscher, explaining that the" management plan "has also obtained the approval of theIspra, the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research. But the ecologists are not there.
“This is an excuse to make the hunting system», Says Luigi Mariotti, for many years leader of the Bolzano WWF who asks the Province to stop feeding ungulates during the winter. The deer control plan for the 2022-2026 period is a 177-page document that explains how to reduce the density of deer to restore the ecological balance within the Stelvio park. It was presented by the Councilor for the Environment Maria Hochgruber Kuenzer which insists on the damage to agriculture and forestry caused by deer. "The goal - says the councilor - is to restore the ecological balance."
And to restore order in kind we will use the rifles. The first "withdrawals" will begin this autumn, as explained by the director of the provincial office of the Stelvio National Park, Hanspeter Gunsch. «We will start in the areas of Val Venosta, Martello, Gomagoi, Campo Tures and Val d'Ultimo. The removal interventions - specifies Gunsch - will be coordinated and organized by the provincial office of the Stelvio National Park. The sampling will be carried out in collaboration with specially trained specialists: currently in South Tyrol they are about 500". "The park can bear a maximum density of between 5,5 and 10 animals per square kilometer which is now exceeded," explained the South Tyrolean governor, focusing on the damage to the forest. "Forest regeneration is impossible in these conditions, we are not the only ones to have adopted this type of measures that have also obtained the green light from Ispra".
«This is a plan based on an extensive scientific monitoring work that aims to bring about a stabilization of the overall deer populationKompatscher added, preventing criticism from the environmentalist source. And in fact the animal rights world is extremely skeptical on a level which, as Luigi Mariotti points out, «aims only to maintain the hunting system". «The Province - explains Mariotti, who has been active in the Bolzano section of the WWF for years - has always allowed foraging ungulates during the winter.
It is certainly sad to see hungry animals in the winter but this would contribute to lowering the number of deer. Instead we prefer to feed them and then shoot them ». Among other solutions that, according to the WWF, could restore the ecological balance, there would also be the wolf, a natural predator. "Unfortunately there is too much mistrust between hunters and farmers and we can't even talk about it. We fear that many wolves are killed in secret without provincial politics lifting a finger ", concludes Mariotti (Corriere del Veneto).