DEAD WOOD is a crucial component of forest ecosystems. In commercially managed forests, the extraction of woody biomass has always been a priority, while dead wood has always been considered a breeding ground for forest pests. However, the removal, burning or burying of timber and old trees has led to a drastic decline in various saproxylic species. These of forests have become very rare. This trend has therefore caused the extinction of species and, as a consequence, an impoverishment of the soil’s organic substances, which are fundamental for the natural evolution of the forest humus. For this reason, the elimination of dead wood should be highly controlled and evaluated. As a matter of fact, preservation of dead wood in forests not only diminishes the probability of extinction of species that occupy such a specialised ecological but also helps to maintain the biodiversity necessary for other forest species. Dead wood decaying relicts primeval niche, The Baltic Sea Conservation Foundation The disappearance of the primeval lowland forests Lowlands were usually the first areas to be colonised by man and highly exploited. A lot of forests were transformed into pastures or arable land while the remaining portions were managed as coppices , and dead wood of larger diameters was probably often scarce for hundreds of years. For example, the forests that covered the Veneto Plain in pre-Roman times are now confined to a few isolated relicts of about 8,000 hectares, which are affected by bio-geographical isolation, structural simplification, poor timber supply, absence of dead wood and its microhabitats, the introduction of species and the difficulty of renewal. meadows, 1 alien pedunculate oak DO What is a coppice? 1 An exception One of the exceptions is the State Nature Reserve “ ” (Mantova province, Italy) , one of the last relics to have evolved from a to an forest (i.e. a structurally mature forest with dead wood). This has helped to improve microhabitats for saproxylic communities, which are characterised by high stability of the main physical parameters (temperature, humidity, light) and relatively good availability of space and food resources. 2 Bosco della Fontana 1 oak-hornbeam coppice old-growth DO Do you know of any other Italian primeval lowland forest? 2 MORE It has been declared a Special Protection Area (1998) and Site of Community Importance (2004). Its grassland, which is one of the last semi-natural formations existing in the province of Mantova, is rich in spontaneous rare plants and vertebrate/invertebrate species. 1 Bosco della Fontana