Il Montello: uno sguardo d' insieme

In the chapters of this book different aspects of the Montello’s natural characters and anthropic features are analysed both individually and in their interrelationships, in accordance with the aims of the “3KCL project - Karstic Cultural Landscape”. The study of a complex natural object like a mountain group is performed through the disassembling of its different parts, which are considered separately. The risk of such a procedure is to give a perception of a relative steadiness, where each element seems to be independent from the others. In reality, the Montello is a complex object in continual evolution, where all its static and dynamic constituents are closely interrelated. It is a natural relief continuously evolving through physical, chemical and biological processes as an open system exchanging matter and energy with the contiguous systems, mainly with the Piave river system and the atmosphere. A large part of the rainwater penetrates the relief supplying an underground reservoir and feeding the springs. Each day something like 70000 cubic metres of water take away nearly 17 tons of dissolved rock. As a consequence of this mass wasting, forms like the dolines and the caves continue to evolve. The Montello may be defined both as a morphokarstic unit and as a karstic geosystem because the karst process is the most effective in the control of its morphogenesis in the present day environmental conditions. A morphokarstic unit is a relief or a basin imprinted mostly by the karst morphogenesis and with both surface and underground forms. Each morphokarstic unit is, at one and the same time, a karst geosystem, made up of different categories of physical elements in different states of matter, constituting a complex system where geological, geomorphological, pedological, biological and anthropic components are strictly interrelated. The Montello karst geosystem is, regarding some aspects, different from the more typical karst geosystems of the Venetian Prealps. It presents a great structural homogeneity because of the lithological uniformity of the conglomerate rock. The porosity of this rock is relatively great and more similar to the diffuse porosity of alluvial rocks than to the porosity of fractured rocks like limestone. This favours the development of dolines more than that of caves. The carbonate content of the water is high and probably influenced by the long residence time of the water inside the rock and by the relatively high temperature (13 °C). The covers of thick soil are controlled by, in addition to the biological environment, the acclivitous slopes and the presence of clay residues and of silt deposited as loess during the cold phases of the Pleistocene. In the evolution of this geosystem the interrelations between the tectonic uplifting, the fluvial planation processes and the karst morphogenesis inside the relict fluvial forms are very clear. The fundamental role of the living tectonics emerges also from the progressive deformation of large forms such as the fluvial planation terraces, which are bent with their convexity upward. From the point of view of the human role within the geosystems, an important phase has been that of management and protection of the oak forest as a resource of valuable wood. In this period, even though human pressure seems to have been light, tight control of the vegetal environment was maintained through careful forestry regulations. More recently, nearly a century ago, the cultural forest was completely cleared to reclaim soil for agriculture. Small packets of land were given to poor people, others were sold off. The experiment was unsuccessful and in time a secondary wood of introduced trees gradually developed in the abandoned fields. Today, human presence and pressure is discontinuous. In the secondary woods, activities such as wood and mushroom gathering, sometimes associated with excursions, are common. In the cultivated areas one problem is the scarcity of local water resources for irrigation; so water from the aqueduct is used with the introduction of allogenic water. Besides this, modern agricultural techniques, such as the use of fertilizers and pesticides, may have a significant impact on the natural environment. Because of the slow water circulation, the karst aquifer may remain contaminated for a long time by the introduction of pollutants. The water of the Forame spring is still polluted several years after the accidental discharge of fuel from a tank. Another form of impact is the large movement of soil related to newly developing agriculture, such as the large new vineyards. In accordance with the planning rules of the area, urban development has interested only marginally the hill (in particular the Biadene furrow and the adjacent first terrace). Until now the building industry has not found important uses for the conglomerate rock and so very few quarries, mostly very small, have been opened on the hill. In general, from this research the karst geo-ecosystem and the landscape of the Montello emerge as a singularity in the context of the high Venetian Plain and of the Southern Alps: the Montello is an environmental and a scenic isle worthy of recognition and protection. The uniqueness of the Montello does not mean an internal uniformity, but rather gradients of natural features, such as the karst depressions, the vegetation and the human elements and signs. On this isle different types and styles of land and resource use coexist with more or less evident conflicts. To be able to harmonize its future development it is fundamental to transmit to the local people a comprehensive understanding of the peculiarities of their territory. Only in this way will they be able to play a conscious role in their future development. In accordance with its mainly natural features, striking singularity and geographical setting within a highly urbanized region, the future of the Montello is clearly as a recreational area with the promotion of recreational and cultural tourism, including also specialized activities, such as speleology, any activity specifically linked to agricultural-tourism and bio-agriculture, and with the recovery of some of the typical landscapes of the past, such as the oak forest. To promote such development, it is necessary to carry out well-planned educational projects able to involve local people. We hope that this “3KCL - Karstic Cultural Landscape”, in which research and school education have been combined, will trigger new initiatives in this direction.