Wild Ungulate Browsing, Natural Regeneration and Silviculture in the Italian Alps

Abstract

In the southern part of the Alps the intensive use of forests for domestic animals has declined this century and particularly during the last few decades. After the Second World War wild ungulates, rare or absent at the beginning of this century, increased in number and expanded their range. Mountain forests are very vulnerable to ungulate damage owing to the long periods needed for regeneration processes. In this study, the impact of ungulate browsing on forest regeneration was investigated in 10 areas of the Italian Alps. The incidence of browsing damage on forest regeneration (10-150 cm height) was found to vary between 52.8% in the most severely damaged area and 6.9% in the least affected area. The lethality of browsing damage (used as index of browsing intensity) was found to be nil in 4 areas out of ten and up to 17.2% in the areas with the highest ungulate density. Ungulate density is not the only factor influencing degree of browsing damage; winter tourism and land and road settlements in potential ungulate winter ranges also play an important role. Naturalistic silviculture is the most profitable system for the conservation and the sustain-ability of the whole forest ecosystem but high ungulate densities prevent its application.