Stelvio National Park

The Stelvio National Park was founded in 1935 in order to increase the number of animals and to protect the plants and geological formations of the area. However the park was definitely created only in 1960. In 1977 the territory of the park was enlarged until it joined with the Swiss Natural Park of the Bassa Engadina. Now the Stelvio Park stretches for 134,620 hectares. It streches from 650 m of Laces in Val Venosta, to 3905 m in the Ortles peek. 51626 hectares belong to Sondrio?s province while 10198 hectares are pf the Brescia?s province. The territory of the park surrounds the big Ortles-Cevedale mountain group. The high altitude of the Park makes it rich in glaciers; in fact there are more than 115 of them. Among them, there is the Forni glacier which is the widest Himalayan glacier type, with its 2,000 hectares of extension. The erosion of the glaciers has caused the formation of many hollows where it is now possible to see high mountain lakes. Human kind has lived here since ages ago. There are archeological sites from the Neolithic era. Later Etruscans (population that lived in the first part of the VIII century), Longobards and Romans lived in this harsh part of Italy, and we can still notice some of the towers they built.

PLANTS
The botanical structures of the park can be divided into four levels. We found the Entropic vegetation, typical of humans farming along the valley bottoms. The sub alpine area that is characterized by conifer woods and the underwood made of ferns, rosebays, heathers and bilberries. The Alpine level is characterized by pastures. Finally the area over 2800-3000 m is where the vegetation is made up of mosses and lichens.

ANIMALS
Deers, roe deers, chamois and rock-goats live in the Stelvio Park together with smaller mammalian animals like marmots (large population), foxes, white hares and stoats. Very interesting are birds, particularly the royal eagle (only few exemplars), the snow- grouse (in the Atesino part) and the eagle-owl. In observance of the rules established by the Stelvio National Park Corps., in the whole area fishing, hunting, picking mushrooms or flowers, disturbing with noises, camping in areas different than the public ones, walk dogs (even if on leaches), lighting fires, and of course littering is forbidden.

Provinces in Lombardy's area: BS, SO
Localities: Bormio, Livigno, Ponte di Legno, Sondalo, Temù, Valdedentro, Valdisotto, Valfurva, Vezza d'Oglio.