Italian Wilderness Association. On December 22nd, the Municipality of Castellafiume (L'Aquila) also designated its own sector of the Wilderness Area.
This is the third in Abruzzo, the Region where the Italian Association for Wilderness originated (in Pescasseroli, back in 1981, conceived and commissioned by Franco Zunino, then a naturalist technician employed by the Abruzzo National Park). the symbolic “stake” of the modest land at Monte Ja'Vuttero di Pescasseroli, donated to AIW for this very purpose.
Subsequently, the large sector of Pizzo Deta designated by the Municipality of San Vincenzo Valle Roveto (today merged with the large Wilderness Area of the Ernici Mountains); finally, a new symbolic land at the Cicerana of Lecce in the Marsi, with an agreement with the AIW.
The new sector of Castellafiume consists of a central portion of the southern slope of the long mountain greenhouse which from Capistrello reaches practically intact as far as Tagliacozzo and which in the center has the Girifalco Mountains (1268 meters) and Arezzo (1279 m). Extending 215 hectares, it enjoys almost complete protection (apart from hunting, which can instead be practiced freely) and it comes to safeguard a state-owned ecosystem in the process of re-naturalization after excessive use for grazing and forestry purposes in the distant past.
At the time, the new Wilderness Area, called "Monti Girifalco and Arezzo", was also included among the Sites of Community Interest precisely for its value of flora and fauna biodiversity and in the past often proposed as a Nature Reserve. it is hoped that in the future it can also extend to the neighboring territories belonging to the Municipalities of Capistrello, Cappadocia, Scùrcola and Tagliacozzo (the northern side, characterized by intact canals and valleys of great scenic beauty, is also enjoyable from the road, railway and Pescara-Rome motorway).
Its greatest importance as a natural biodiversity is given by the presence of a nesting colony of Griffon Vulture (a species once extinct in the Apennines and then reintroduced a few years ago in the nearby Monte Velino State Nature Reserve); colony that was created after some specimens moved there - as well as in the rocky sector of neighboring municipalities - having found here a better and more suitable nesting site. In addition to the Griffon, other rare species are present and nest, such as the Raven and the Peregrine Falcon (or perhaps, or even, the Lanner).
According to what some bibliographic sources report, the presence of the wild cat and also the hedgehog and the eagle owl, as well as flying over the golden eagle, would not be missing. Also reported was the spectacled Salamander and the rare butterfly Carcharodus boeticus.
These are «rugged slopes with a high outcropping rockiness (…) characterized by degraded stands almost totally devoid of vegetation and consisting of barren grasslands more or less bushy and arborated», as described by the Forest Plan; that is, a biome undergoing renaturalization which also botanically could reveal the presence of rare floristic species worthy of particular research. Characteristic are the high rock bands that follow one another for several kilometers in length, or that particular morphology that has allowed the Griffins to find their ideal nesting habitat.
The example and the principle established by the unanimous resolution of the Municipal Council of Castellafiume led by the Mayor Domenico Mariani, deserves to be followed by all the neighboring municipalities, to make this mountain greenhouse, today considered "lost" or "useless" (and practically unknown to most people), also a tourist attraction; although in any case deserving to be preserved only for its value in itself of biodiversity and panoramic beauty, with the Wilderness Area this can in fact be done without - unlike many "Park" areas - harming the rural interests of the community local. An attraction that can now be identified by means of signs to be installed both in the town and along the provincial road that from Capistrello, passing through Castellafiume, goes up to Tagliacozzo.
With this last sector of Wilderness Area, they reach the number of 66, divided into 105 sectors, scattered in 10 Regions and 20 Provinces for a total extension of over 50.000 hectares.
Frank Zunino
Secretary General of the Italian Wilderness Association
(January 20, 2016)
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