The Bosco della Mesola is a state nature reserve situated in the municipalities of Goro, Codigoro, and Mesola, in the province of Ferrara, within the Po Delta Park. Established as a state nature reserve in 1977, it covers an area of 1,058 hectares and represents the largest forested area in the Ferrara territory. The reserve is also part of the European Natura 2000 network, designated as a Site of Community Importance and Special Protection Zone (IT4060015). The terrain has alluvial origins, with geology dating to the Quaternary; the soil is sandy with a modest fine-particle content, producing poorly evolved soils. The altitude ranges from approximately -1 to +3 metres above sea level. The reserve receives approximately 10,000 visitors per year.
Featured image: Young male of deer near Elciola in the Mesola wood
History
The forest stands on an ancient system of coastal dune ridges that began stabilising around the year 1000 CE, during the Medieval Warm Period. In the manuscripts of the early seventeenth century and in historical cartographic records, these coastal woodlands were described as among the finest in the Ferrara territory, extending inland to form the Bosco Eliceo, named after the holm oak (leccio) that dominated its composition. The surviving remnant of this once extensive forest system persists as the Gran Bosco della Mesola today.
In the late medieval and Renaissance periods, deforestation progressively reduced the coastal forest belt to a narrow strip between the Po Delta and the town of Cervia near Ravenna, comprising the Ravenna Pinete, the Bosco Eliceo near San Giuseppe, the Bosco della Prepositura Pomposiana, and a hunting reserve maintained by the House of Este. Alfonso II d’Este ordered the enclosure of the Este woodland with a perimeter wall between 1578 and 1583; this woodland was subsequently felled and replaced by agricultural land in 1598. The Bosco Eliceo was similarly cleared in 1675. The Bosco della Prepositura Pomposiana covered approximately 5,000 hectares until the sixteenth century before being progressively reduced. The surviving woodland in the current reserve area was partly protected from clearance by the formation of flooded valleys and malarial marshes, a consequence of a diversion of a Po tributary ordered by the Republic of Venice to prevent the silting of the Venetian Lagoon.
The first section of the reserve, covering 222 hectares, was established as an Integral Nature Reserve under the name Bassa dei Frassini-Balanzetta by ministerial decree in 1971; the remainder was designated in 1977. The Castello della Mesola, built in 1580 by Alfonso II d’Este as a hunting residence at the forest’s edge, now houses the Museum of the Deer and the Wood of Mesola (second floor).
Vegetation
The reserve presents several distinct environmental zones reflecting the small topographic variations of the ancient dune system, which produce measurable differences in soil moisture and ecological conditions. The coastal strip supports halophytic and psammophilous species including sea rocket, sand couch grass, marram grass, and common juniper. The interior zone is characterised by thermophilous coastal and Mediterranean scrub, with holm oak forming one of its northernmost stations in Italy, accompanied by tamarisk, stone pine, willows, poplars, and pedunculate oak. The core woodland zone contains predominantly English oak, manna ash, and field elm. The reserve also contains marshy areas with typical wetland vegetation and open meadow clearings.
Fauna
The Mesola Deer (Cervus elaphus italicus, also known as the Dune Deer) is the emblematic species of the reserve and its principal conservation priority. The population of approximately 300 individuals constitutes the only autochthonous red deer population in peninsular Italy; they are direct descendants of the ancient red deer of the Po Valley and represent a subspecies distinct from all others present on the peninsula, more closely related phylogenetically to the Sardinian-Corsican deer and North African red deer than to the nominotypical central European subspecies. The taxonomic recognition of this population as a distinct subspecies (Cervus elaphus italicus) was proposed in a 2014 study published in the Italian Journal of Zoology. Reintroduction programmes have been carried out in areas of Calabria without existing red deer populations to establish additional stable groups while avoiding hybridisation with the nominate subspecies. The deer can be observed via electric minibus from March to late October.
Fallow deer are also present, introduced in the 1950s and 1960s; with an estimated current population of around 50 individuals, they coexist and compete with the native red deer. Other mammals include the European badger, polecat, hedgehog, and water vole; the presence of the wolf is considered probable. Seven bat species associated with woodland environments have been recorded, including the greater noctule.
Among amphibians, the reserve hosts the common spadefoot toad (pelobate fosco), representing the only known population south of the River Po. Reptiles include the asp viper, the western whip snake, Hermann’s tortoise, and the European pond turtle. The nesting bird community is dominated by canopy and cavity-nesting species: great spotted woodpecker, wryneck, hoopoe, golden oriole, red-backed shrike, nightingale, chaffinch, and greenfinch. Breeding raptors include the Eurasian sparrowhawk and the Eurasian hobby.
The Elciola wetland
The reserve formerly supported a considerably richer assemblage of wetland bird species, as it was historically surrounded by marshes on three sides and by the sea on the east; the drainage works carried out across the Po Delta reduced this diversity substantially. To counteract this decline, a wetland area within the reserve named Elciola was created; this area, generally closed to the public, provides refuge for several duck species, herons, night herons, coots, and waders.
Visiting
Approximately 200 hectares of the reserve’s 1,058 are open to the public, accessible on foot or by bicycle along three marked trails of varying length (from one to three hours). The reserve is open from 1 March to 31 October on Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays. Dogs are not permitted within the reserve.
The Delta region is a lonely and mysterious land of legends, traditions and swamps.
Sources
Text: Wikipedia, ferraraterraeacqua.it
Images: Flickr, wikimedia
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