Tognola

The sky slope Tognola is situated near the village of San Martino di Castrozza, in Trentino (North-eastern part of Italy). The area is included in the Natural Park of Paneveggio Pale di San Martino and it is located at an altitude of 2100 m a.sl., with a 14° slope and south aspect. The implementation of the project of revegetation has been financed since 2002 by the Park authority. The restored area of about 954 m², is now a demonstration site of SALVERE which funds the monitoring activities.

The techniques compared are seed-rich green and dry hay, and mulching of seed from seed stripper obtained from a Festuca nigrescens-Agrostis tenuis meadow, situated in Lusia (1895 m a.s.l.) about 25 km far from the receptor site. The donor site is cut once a year and not fertilized.
On August 2002 grass was cut with a cutter bar mower, dried, transported with a pick-up and manually distributed. The seed was harvested with a seed stripper, kept in nylon bags, manually distributed on the donor site and then covered with a straw mulching against erosion. The fertilisation (60 kg N, P2O5 and K2O per year) was compared with no fertilisation.

2002. The Lusia (1895 m a.s.l.) Festuca nigrescens – Agrostis tenuis meadow. The reddish colour derives from the Agrostis tenuis inflorescences.		2003 1 year after sowing. The greener plots are the fertilised ones.
2008. The single plants have grown and reached a relative high cover per plant.  Main species are Festuca nigrescens, Agrostis tenuis, Trifolium pratense (from the donor site), Agrostis rupestris and Festuca halleri (nearby natural vegetation).		2009 Surface 7 years after the sowing.
		Experimental design; Map of the demonstration site
		2007. The re-vegetation seen from the airplane.
Development of the soil cover in the six years after sowing in fertilised and not fertilised plots sown with Dry hay. The fertilised plots rapidly reach a relatively high cover. The not fertilised plots are slower but after six years the difference is little.	The number of plants is more or less the same over the whole period and in fertilised and not fertilised plots. It is highly limited by the very stony soil.	The different vegetation cover is therefore explained by the different cover per plant, which shows more or less the same trend.