Update of activities December 2013

Note from the Coordinator The 11th November 2013, an exceptional meteoric event invested Vallombrosa (Site 07). Strong winds destroyed some parts of the forest causing a huge, unexpected and unplanned availability of wood. This has induced the forest managers to interdict all the harvesting operation in the area, except those relate to salvage logging. This unexpected event poses to the project a limit due to the harvesting interdiction, that will impede the implementation of the management options designed for site 07, but, at the same time, it could be an important opportunity to investigate many parameters of the forest structure in order to evaluate which kind of structure has better resisted to the disturbance. This may involve also assessment of indicators related to disturbance and to resistance to meteoric events. The Steering Committee of the project will soon meet, via telefconference, to evaluate if devoting the resources foreseen for this site to this new target (evaluation of forest structure resistance to disturbance), it will be possible to obtain important evidences in order to judge which sylvicultural practices and systems can make forests more resistent and resilient to damages from wind and hence to make the forest better suited to resist in a climatic context that is becoming increasingly unstable. Action 1-2 - Project Management and Project Monitoring - PMa – PMo. o Day by day coordination and management activities o Coordination of administration tasks o Preparation of the financial documentations and financial report for Slovenian part of the project (till 30th November, 2013) o Starting of the organization of the annual Technical meeting that will take place in the CRA premises at Arezzo () in the second week of February (Doodle for collect participation preferences) o Participation of the Technical Manager to a meeting in Cansiglio in order to coordinate the activities for preparation of the publication of a fable (see action CD) in collaboration with the UTB of Vittorio Veneto (Site1) o Request for financial reporting and documentation until 31/12/2013 sent out by the Financial Manager o Coordination of project activities and preparation the plans for next period Action 3 – Ecological connectivity, landscape patterns and representativeness of test areas - ECo o Elaboration ongoing in Italy - ECo SI o Analysis of new Lidar data (2013) for all Slovenian sites Action 4 Analysis and design of forest management options. - AnDeFM o Analysis of results from sites and starting of report preparation - AnDeFM-SI - Database evaluation with special interest to harvested trees on ManFor plots - Further analysis of management options and stand characteristics for all three Slovenian sites - Calculation of stand parameters and diversity indexes Action 5 Implementation of forest management options in the test areas. - IMP o Implementation of forest management options in the test areas (collection of felled wood at Mongiana o Analysis of datasets to find out number and type of relationships between mensurational variables and indexes descriptive of stand structure before and after thinning operations in the beech forests of Cansiglio and Mongiana. o Ongoing of tree marking operations at the site of Pennataro (Molise region); o Analysis of spatial and Non-spatial Competition and Structural Diversity Indexes to examine the impact of alternative thinning approaches on structure diversity and complexity at stand level in the beech forests of Cansiglio and Mongiana. o Data Arrangement and validation following application of silvicultural operations at the site of Tarvisio - IMP-SI  Evaluation of different GIS layers  Preparation of education materials from test areas

Action 6 Assessment of indicators related to carbon cycle of managed forests. - ForC o Laboratory preparation and analysis of samples collected at site 1 – Cansiglio, site 2 Chiarano, site 6 – Tarvisio are going on o Data elaboration for soil respiration and foliar content are started o Litter samples from the last collecting campaign has been completed (Chiarano, Mongiana, Cansiglio) - ForC-SI o Data transfer of temperature and air humidity from the field measurement equipment o Further preparation of soil samples in laboratory and measurements of soil pH, C, N, S and carbonate content o Sorting and evaluation of data from soil efflux measurements on different sites, microsites and periods; some basic statistical analyses are in the process of the evaluation o Checking of appropriate plots for installation of the automated soil respiration measurement device at Trnovo site o Regular maintenance of field equipment and data-loggers removal from the field at the end of vegetation season; equipment storage and cleaning after the fieldwork

Action 7 Assessment of indicators related to forest biodiversity. - ForBD o reply to referee’s comment for the accepted paper on the scientific journal “Amphibia- Reptilia” o preparation of field materials for next field sampling o Field sampling on Salamandrina (site Pennataro - Monte di Mezzo) o data elaboration o laboratory analysis of the samples collected in Cansiglio (site 1), Lorenzago di Cadore (site 3) and Vallombrosa (site 7) to identify and sort the target families of Coleoptera and Diptera. o Classification of samples from pitfall traps completed o Ultrasound analisys of acoustic surveys and bat species identification o Bird data analysis and structuring of the year-end report

- ForBD-SI

o Further analysis of plant species diversity – testing of three key factors (location (site), dominant tree species and planned forest management action (intensity of intervention)); use of different indices/indicators

Action 8 Demonstration Areas. - DEM o Nothing of particular relevance - .DEM-SI o First draft of the data obtained from the research has been presented to the Slovenian Forestry Service and a joined consensus about the information has been established. o Information about the general character of the processes in the studied forest sites for the broader public is prepared, as well as the more detailed and target oriented information for the professional public with emphasis on the conclusions from an ongoing research.

Action 9 – SynTran – Synthesis and Transferability of Project Results. o Nothing of particular relevance.

Action 10 -– Communication and Dissemination. - CD o Works aimed to the publication of a fairy tale (in collaboration with the UTB of Vittorio Veneto - Site1) are going on. A meeting in Cansiglio in order to coordinate the activities for preparation of the publication has been held. o Updating of the facebook page o Partecipation of the coordinator and the Press agent to the conference "La Natura dell’Italia. Biodiversità e Aree protette: la green economy per il rilancio del Paese". The event, organized by the Ministero dell’Ambiente della tutela del territorio e del mare, has involved environmental experts (from scientific Institutions and private societies) and Institutions (the European Commissioner for the Environment Janez Potočnik, the Italian Ministers , Fabrizio Saccomanni, , , , Enzo Moavero, , , and others), has been an exceptional occasion where to disseminate the Project by distributing divulgative material and informally presenting its structure and purposes. In this context an interview to the Italian Minister Andrea Orlando has been given by the Press Agent of the Project presenting contextually the project o The Coordinator has partecipated to the meeting of the Working Group Mountain Forests of the Alpine Convention (Trento, Italy, 3-4 December). The first day, the meeting was closed to the participants of the WG, finalised to prepare a Strategic Statement on Mountain Forests. The coordinator presented the project as a way to test sustainable management of mountain forests. The second day was devoted to an open workshop on the Ecosystem Services of mountain forests. Brochures and leaflets of the project were distributed to all participants to the workshop (approx. 80 people).

 CD-SI o Designing and final editing of text of Slovenian ManFor newsletter (ManFor NOVICE in Slovenian) o Last review of ManFor newsletter before printing o Printing of ManFor novice, issue 1