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The WWF’s Oasis Campolattaro lake is located in a Site of Community Importance and special protecting area.
It has an extension of about 1,000 hectares, which are occupied by a wet area formed after the blocking of the Tammaro river in order to create an artificial lake inside the whole alluvial plain.
The forest is inhabited mainly by willows (Salix spp.), poplars (Populus spp.) and alders (Alnus spp.); the swampy areas are colonised by reeds (Phragmites australis) and Typha spp.
The surrounding zones are covered by forests of Turkey Oaks (Quercus cerris) and downy oaks (Quercus pubescens), maple trees (Acer spp.), Fraxinus ornus, service trees (Sorbus domestica) and Carpinus betulus; there are also private areas halfway up the hill side, olive tree orchards and no-intensively cultivated fields with natural hedges of hawthorns (Crataegus monogyna), blackthorns (Prunus spinosa), Euonymus europaeus, privets (Ligustrum vulgare) and elms (Ulmus spp.).
The florescence of narcissuses (Narcissus spp.), violets (Viola spp.), lawn daisies and various orchid species, like (Ophrys apifera, Ophrys fuciflora, Serapias vomeracea), stand out among the lawns.
The lake’s fauna is characterised by a colony of herons and mammals such as foxes, badgers, hare and weasels.

Environmental education and avifauna’s monitoring activities take place inside the oasis.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)