Madonna di Campiglio:another 2.7 hectares of forests cut down to make room for skiing

In Madonna di Campiglio, in the province of Trento, 2.7 hectares of forest, in which beech trees, pines, fir trees and holm oaks stand out, will be swept away to provide for the expansion of one of the 44 ski slopes in the area.Funivie Madonna di Campiglio spa, a company that controls ski facilities in the western area of ​​Trentino, filed the documentation relating to the Provincial Environmental Protection Agency (APPA) a month ago. arrangement and expansion of the “Poza Vecia” slope, which will see an increase in surface area of ​​32,520 m2.The deforestation operations will involve, in part, the Adamello Brenta Natural Park, located within an area classified as a controlled reserve and non-priority habitat.At the same time, we will proceed to make artificial snow the area.

Following the presentation of the project "Arrangement and expansion with completion of the snowmaking system" by the company, the Autonomous Province of Trento forwarded it to the APPA, which will now be called upon to certify it being subject to environmental impact assessment.Specifically, the plan - as outlined in the Public Notice of the Environmental Quality Sector of the APPA - predicts "the widening and modification of the level" of the "Poza Vecia" - an "easy blue" downhill slope which passes through the Municipality of Tre Ville and within the hamlet of Monclassico and the Community of the Regole of Spinale and Manez - "between the heights are 1755 and 1660 metres, for an overall development of Approximately 1200 meters”.The main objective is to increase the slope of the circuit on which, to date, skiers have to "racket".In particular, a significant enlargement of the floor (+16,385 m2) and ramps (+17,415 m2) and excavations for 38,165 m3 are expected.The project also consists of the “installation of the snowmaking system programmed currently absent on this stretch of track", for interventions that will directly affect "the protected natural areas of the Adamello Brenta Natural Park and the Brenta Dolomites Special Conservation Area".The timetable envisages works from June to November 2024, in order to reopen in December.

In short, although most of the calculations and projections converge in telling us that - due to climate change and the drought which is also affecting the mountain areas of our country -, at least at average altitudes, in about ten years it will no longer be possible do skiing activities, the installation companies they continue to invest in the sector undaunted.In this they are also supported byaction of the executive, which, according to the usual and infertile perspective of "aid packages" and "special funds", continues to finance private individuals in difficulty for new artificial snow systems.To this end, the Meloni government has already allocated 147 million euros, in particular for the construction of water supply tanks, for the renovation of cableways and for the creation of large piles of technical snow, useful for starting the winter season early.An outlay of another 200 million was also foreseen last spring for "renovation, modernization and maintenance of cable ski lifts and artificial snow systems", in most cases intended to plants located less than 2 thousand meters above sea level (where, in recent years, the amount of snow has incredibly decreased).Due to increasingly higher temperatures, around 90% of the ski resorts in the country are covered in artificial snow.For this, approximately 95 million cubic meters of water are used every year.With a cost of 136 thousand euros per hectare of track.

[Stefano Baudino]