Nature, culture and landscapes

The Park extends around the river Taro, in its stretch crossing the upper plain.

The wide riverbed meanders and the water gains its route on a gravel mattress. The river banks are usually situated above the riverbed and feature a mosaic-shaped plant covering.

Large surfaces are mainly covered with grass, with essence of dry environments, sometimes the species belonging to markedly dry grounds prevail.
Such grasslands often alternate with scattered shrubs sometimes gathered in more or less thick spots that can locally originate formations of thick woodlands.

Where the ground is deeper and the sediments of the terraces bordering the water course correspond to the most ancient floods, there are woods featuring high plants towering with their crowns over the river landscape.

In this part located a bit behind the riverbed, human activities developed very much and several surfaces are occupied by the agricultural lands mainly used to cultivate the fodder for the cattle feeding and for the the production of the Parmigiano Reggiano.

The Park's territory can be divided into a series of environments that, considered as a whole, build the Taro river ecosystem:

• the river's exposed bed and banks
• the woodlands
• the wetlands
• the untamed areas and the bushy areas
• the cultivated areas and the inhabited ones