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The Bassone Oasis – Albate Peat Bogs is a 222-acre nature reserve consisting of a crescent-shaped depression around a hill of morainic origin. It can be divided into three different environments: a grassland, a woodland and a marshland.

The meadows border the marsh, where the extraction of peat occurred in past centuries and left some artificial ponds. The bodies of water are fed by two irrigation ditches and a fountain, called Fonte Prada, and by a smaller network of small canals and drains.

The vegetation features common reeds (Phragmites australis), and bulrush (Typha latifolia); the trees are mostly English oaks (Quercus robur), hornbeams (Carpinus betulus), black alders (Alnus glutinosa), several varieties of willows (Salix spp.), elms (Ulmus spp.), and birches (Betula spp.).

Many birds populate this area, including mallards, great crested grebes, little grebes, common moorhens, water rails, grey herons, and little ringed plovers. Then, there are Western marsh harriers, northern goshawks, red kites, common buzzards, and short-eared owls.

Reptile species include European pond turtles, grass snakes, agile frogs, and Italian agile frog,

Mammals are abundant as well, including hazel dormice, badgers, beech martens, least weasels, hares and European rabbits.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)