Protection and promotion of unique biodiversity (SIC)

The Le Torraie – Monte Lesima Nature Reserve and SIC (site of community importance) extends for 598 hectares along the Torraie valley in the municipality of Brallo di Pregola, from the Avagnone and Trebbia streams to the 1,724 meters of the Lesima peak. From a geological point of view, the site is characterized by the limestones of Mount Antola and the Corbesassi escarpment. The Reserve is home to hundreds of hectares of beech woods at the highest altitudes and black hornbeam at the lower altitudes. Along the ridge there are extensive meso-xerophilous grasslands of considerable naturalistic value for the richness of species (there are very many orchids) and the interactions with the pollinators that visit them. There is an Astragalus sirinicus station, the northernmost in the Italian peninsula. Thanks to its geographical position, in fact, Mount Lesima (whose peak is less than 40 km as the crow flies from the Gulf of Tigullio and the Gulf of Paradise), despite being inserted in a continental climate context, is affected by many Mediterranean influences. The fauna includes the crayfish, many diurnal birds of prey including the golden eagle and the short-toed eagle and, among mammals, the deer and the wolf. Thanks to the over 80 species contacted, the area of ​​Mount Lesima is one of the richest in butterflies in Europe. Mount Lesima is the highest peak of the Ligurian-Piedmont-Pavia Apennines. You can recognize the Dego and Oramara mountains, belonging to the ridge between the Trebbia and the Aveto; the Bue, Maggiorasca, Penna and Ajona mountains, between which runs the watershed between the Aveto and the Taro. Between the Lesima and Alfeo mountains flows the Boreca torrent in a winding and impervious valley, among the most fascinating of the entire Apennines” i).