The Alpe Veglia and Alpe Devero Natural Park was established in 1995 and is in the

Ossola The Ossola (, also Valle Ossola or Val d’Ossola) is an area of Italy situated to the north of Lago Maggiore. It lies within the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola. Its principal river is the Toce, and its most important town Domodossola. ...

valley, in the

Province of Verbania Verbano-Cusio-Ossola (Italian: ''Provincia del Verbano Cusio Ossola'' ) is the northernmost province in the Italian region of Piedmont. It was created in 1992 through the fusion of three geographical areas which had previously been part of the Pr ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

History

The hollows are geologically and mineralogically interesting, since they testify long period geological process: the presence of remainders of ancient

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...

such as the Ghiacciaio del Leone, the Ghiacciaio d'Aurona dall'alpe Veglia or the Ghiacciaio della Rossa prove the glacial origin of the hollows."Rivista del Coordinamento Nazionale dei Parchi e delle Riserve Naturali"
, n. 10, novembre 1993, su www.parks.it. The mineralogy is interesting: there are asbecasite, cafarsite and cervandonite.

Establishment of the park

The park has been established with the ''L.R. n. 32'' on 14 March 1995 joining two already existing parks:

Alpe Veglia Nature Park

The ''Alpe Veglia Nature Park'' was the first

regional park A regional park is an area of land preserved on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, recreational use or other reason, and under the administration of a form of local government. Definition A regional park can be a special park distri ...

, established in 1978 (''L.R. 14/78'') on the Italian side of the Alpe Veglia at an altitude of 1750 m. It was 4120

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...

s wide including the municipalities of

Varzo Varzo is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about northwest of Verbania, on the border with Switzerland. As of 31 December 2004, it had a popula ...

and

Trasquera Trasquera is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about northwest of Verbania, in the Val Divedro, on the border with Switzerland. Trasquera bord ...

, adjoining the Canton of Valais in Switzerland.

Alpe Devero Nature Park

The ''Alpe Devero Nature Park'' was established in 1990 (''L.R. 49/90'') in order to protect the alpine environment on the Italian side of the Lepontine

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...

. The Alpe Devero is in the

Baceno Baceno ( Lombard ''Bascén'', Walser German: ''Aager'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about northwest of Verbania, on the border with S ...

municipality.

SCI and SPA

The Alpe Devero has been established as

Special Protection Area A Special Protection Area (SPA) is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union (EU) have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and certa ...

(SPA) in the Natura 2000 network. Both Alpe Veglia and Devero have been proposed as

Site of Community Importance A Site of Community Importance (SCI) is defined in the European Commission Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) as a site which, in the biogeographical region or regions to which it belongs, contributes significantly to the maintenance or restoration at ...

in 1995.''Rete Natura 2000- schede descrittive sintetiche dei Siti di Importanza Comunitaria'', Regione Piemonte - settore pianificazione aree protette, 200
(on-line in formato .pdf)

Territory

The area include two wide

U-shaped valley U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with steep, straight s ...

s. The Alpe Veglia is surrounded by

Helsenhorn The Helsenhorn is a mountain of the Lepontine Alps, overlooking Binn in the Swiss canton of Valais. With a height of 3,272 metres above sea level, it is the highest summit of the Binntal. The border with Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), offic ...

(3.272 m), Hillehorn (3.156 m),

Bortelhorn The Bortelhorn (also known as ''Punta del Rebbio'') is a mountain of the Lepontine Alps on the Swiss-Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or si ...

(3.192 m), Punta d'Aurona (2.984),

Wasenhorn The Wasenhorn ( German, it, Punta Terrarossa; ) is a mountain of the Lepontine Alps, located on the border between Switzerland and Italy. It lies halfway between Brig (Swiss canton of Valais) and Varzo (Italian region of Piedmont), just nor ...

(3.246 m) and

monte Leone Monte Leone is the highest mountain of the Lepontine Alps and is located on the border between Switzerland and Italy. The mountain stands on the extreme west of the Lepontine Alps, a few kilometres east of Simplon Pass. Etymology ''Leone'' i ...

(3.553 m). Every mountain has his ows glacier. The Alpe Devero is surrounded by Ofenhorn (3.235 m), Albrunhorn (2.840 m), Punta Valdeserta (2.939 m),

Punta della Rossa The Punta della Rossa (also known as ''Rothorn'') is a mountain of the Lepontine Alps on the Switzerland, Swiss-Italy, Italian border. The name of the mount, in both languages, refers to the red colour of the rocks on this mountain. Reference ...

(2.888 m), Schwarzhorn (3.108 m), Scherbadung (3.155 m) and Pizzo Cornera (3.083 m).

Municipalities

, *

Crodo Crodo is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about northwest of Verbania. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,487 and an area of .Al ...

, *

Flora

The flora is homogeneous, but the main tree is the

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains fur ...

. Throughout the whole park larchwoods and some

alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...

wood can be seen. Above 2000 m altitude there are mostly Rhododendron and dwarf shrub nourishing insects such as

honey bee A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosm ...

wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. ...

, bumblebees and flies. It is possible to spot

Picea abies ''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, 9–17 cm long. It is very close ...

, but they are very rare.

Fauna

The fauna of the park is mostly composed by typical alpine animals, such as steinbock,

Red deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of we ...

Roe deer The roe deer (''Capreolus capreolus''), also known as the roe, western roe deer, or European roe, is a species of deer. The male of the species is sometimes referred to as a roebuck. The roe is a small deer, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapt ...

, chamois,

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

, red squirrel,

Eastern gray squirrel The eastern gray squirrel (''Sciurus carolinensis''), also known, particularly outside of North America, as simply the grey squirrel, is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus''. It is native to eastern North America, where it is the most prodi ...

Golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known birds of ...

European badger The European badger (''Meles meles''), also known as the Eurasian badger, is a badger species in the family Mustelidae native to almost all of Europe. It is classified as least concern on the IUCN Red List as it has a wide range and a large stab ...

and many others. In the lakes or rivers there are different fishes such as

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salm ...

s and graylings. San Domenico Alpe Veglia

References

External links

Official website

AlpeVeglia.it

AlpeDevero.it

News about the park
{{Coord, 46.2705, N, 8.1429, E, source:wikidata, display=title Parks in Piedmont Tourist attractions in Piedmont Alpe Devero