Strategies for reclamation of areas covered by dwarf pine

Uncontrolled development of natural afforested areas might represent a problem by itself, often implying loss of cultural landscapes and habitat variety, bio and eco-diversity depletion, territorial homogenization with loss of economic and natural resources. In the northern area of the Altopiano dei Sette Comuni, a plateau area in the Venetian Alps, dwarf pine has been the most invasive specie, with an high impact in the occupation of alpine pasture land, road, paths and historical sites. In this work a strategy to contain the spreading of this specie along the forest road network is analyzed. The analysis considers the operative costs for both felling and transport of dwarf pine stems to intermediate landings. The logistic problem has been widely analyzed by a GIS based decision support system based on network analysis model and assuming different scenarios considering different level of upgrade of the forest road network. Supply-cost curves have been then constructed to analyze the total reclamation cost in terms of quantities of wood material. The study shows that on the one hand the invasion of forest roads represents a growing problem and on the other hand it highlights that the operative costs are high. The supply-cost actually ranges from 52€/t to 143€/t and it decreases, ranging from 52€/t to 107€/t, only if the upgrade of the forest road network is concerned