Forests expansion in the eastern Italian Alps occurs regardless management has been explicitly abandoned

Land use change due to the abandonment of traditional agricultural and forestry activities is an important phenomenon occurring in the Alps. As one main consequence, forests are invading many of these areas at the expenses of several natural and semi-natural habitats. This study aims at assessing land cover changes within two contiguous watersheds, Tovanella and Cajada, in the eastern Italian Alps. While in Tovanella silvicultural and grazing activities ceased in 1957, in Cajada forestry and other traditional activities occurred continuously but with a lower intensity until today. Historical aerial photographs were compared in a chronological sequence by considering three different years, referring to 1954, 1980, 2003, therefore, analyzing a time span of 50 years. We considered 5 different land cover classes: woodland, grassland/meadow, shrubland, high altitude grassland, rocks and screes. Even though the two landscapes have been managed differently, both had a similar increase in woodland area during all the time span considered and much of this change occurred in the first time period (1954-1980). Grasslands and meadows strongly suffered forest expansion even as an altitudinal shift of shrublands and woodlands. Our study shows that, currently, explicitly abandoning traditional activities cause land cover changes (forest area increase) similar to those occurring even where traditional activities are still carried out. Nevertheless, traditional agricultural and forestry activities will enable to maintain at least a limited area of grasslands and meadows.