The silver firs growing above Laurenzana are not the ones you meet in the Alps: the needles end more roundly and the green is paler, enough for botanists to treat them as a local variety of Abies alba. Stranger still is that they are there at all. At this altitude the vegetation should be beech and Turkey oak, yet a patch of fir wood holds on as an extrazonal forest, outside the range you would expect. It covers 330 hectares, has been a regional reserve since 1988, and is run by the Province of Potenza together with WWF and the town of Laurenzana.
What to see
This is not a pure fir wood. The plant association is classified as Aquifolium-Fagetum: the firs live alongside holly, Turkey oak and the other species of mesophilic woodland, and it is that mixture which makes the phytocoenoses far more varied than in the true fir woods of northern Italy. The Società Botanica Italiana judged the site a biotope of extraordinary environmental interest, and the protection grew out of that judgement.
The wildlife is heard more often than seen. Among the predators the reserve holds the Apennine wolf, the wildcat and the beech marten; among the birds the black woodpecker, the red kite and the black kite, the buzzard and three night hunters: the little owl, the tawny owl and the long-eared owl.
Visiting
You start from the town, at 850 m, and climb to the wood along the trail that crosses the abetina; 330 hectares is a size you can walk. The first thing to look at is not a view but a tree: pull down a low branch and compare the needles with the mountain fir you carry in your head. For access and guided visits the reference is the Province of Potenza, which manages the site with WWF.
Our editors' tip
Look for the edge. The point where the firs thin out and the beeches and Turkey oaks take over is visible to the naked eye, and in a few metres you have in front of you the whole reason this wood was protected. Stand there quietly for a while: the black woodpecker is heard long before it is seen.