Knowing the Nature Reserve

The Nature Reserve protects a wide ecosystem which has by now disappeared from Parma's plain. The area is mainly characterized by artificial wet environments (several sheet of waters of different depths) and parts of plain forest, whose guided renaturalization has led to the settlement of a natural heritage of great value.

The many micro-environments characterizing the present Reserve, besides giving shelter to rare plant species and to an interesting fauna, it also offers the ideal conditions for a great variety of birds that choose to nest, stop during migration, or spend the winter in those areas. The water supply for the Nature Reserve, whose regulation is fundamental to create the ideal conditions for the presence of the different animal and plant species, is guaranteed by the Lorno and Galasso canals through an old flood gate system.

If necessary, the Reserves' basins can function as expansion areas for the two water courses, collecting the exceeding water and safeguarding the near plots of land and settlements from the flood risk.

The present LIPU Oasis - established in 1988 by flooding an intensive cultivation area, in order to create a swamp and facilitate the stopping and the nesting of the Black-winged stilt and of other water birds - represents an important biogenetic and floristic reserve due to the presence of rare or endangered plants in the low plain and across the province.

The surrounding area is mainly characterized by agricultural landscapes, featuring wide rotation cultivations or very extended monoculture, with a quiet low presence of natural environments. The main natural elements that can be found in the Oasis for the protection of the bird species are: the Lorno and Galasso canals; the Cavi Valle and Vescovado; the swamp of the Torrile LIPU Oasis; the hedges along the canals; the stable meadows and the embankments of the Eridania tanks, with spontaneous grass formations and having a herbaceous-shrub-like semi-natural covering.

Visit the website of the Torrile LIPU Oasis