project places

The project is mainly focus on three Sites of Community Importance in the Friuli lowland, near the Adriatic Sea, in the territory of the Communes of Bertiolo, Castions di Strada, Gonars and Talmassons (Udine province), at an altitude between 10 and 30 metres above sea level.

The three SCI cover a wide system of fresh water areas, whose fragments still exist, from the Tagliamento River to the Isonzo River. At the beginning of the XX century they were of about 6,000 hectares.

One of the main features of these wet areas is the Alps water table resurgence through glacial and post-glacial gravely and sandy deposits.

Flowing underground on the permeable soil of the tableland, calcium and magnesium rich water comes to the surface through single springs or wide troughs so as to form alkaline fens before flowing into brooks, called "rogge", and finally into resurgence rivers. This water is very pure, particularly poor in nutrients and it has the same temperature all the year long, which makes the flora of this geographical area very peculiar.

After the reclamations of the '30s and the '50s in the last century, the area has become very fertile and particularly suitable for maize and hybrid poplar cultivation. In the area there are also many fishponds, which have great relevance in the national production of trouts.