When suddenly to spring all-yellow third-party segue  | PRIMAVERA SILENZIOSA / 2
| Ovvero come la Provincia di Ancona spreading poisons and senseless death on the streets |
"GROWTH" consumerist OR IN HARMONY WITH NATURE?
Biodiversity conservation is a challenge that is fought not only in remote rainforests, but also in the territory around us and in which we live. The "Countdown 2010" the European Union, came to the end but, in fact, we are far from being desirable to slow down the process of genetic drift and even the loss of biodiversity and naturalness on large territories. Neither one can see good prospects, especially as it is conceived economic growth, still widely released and too often in stark contradiction to his alleged sustainability. Everything is monetized, even human life and its quality, but we are not yet able to measure and to make them even remotely operating the economic value, social and cultural development of natural resources (water, air, soil, plants, animals, habitats, landscape, etc...)
Today the world economic crisis has called into question many certainties, but early responses, except those coming from overseas (the U.S. and those still to be verified in practice), foretell you try to change the form, not substance.
Among these objectives, the protection of threatened plant species and habitats and stop loss biodiversity priorities are certainly not just for the negative effects more or less direct (such as the degradation of the landscape), but also for the same economic prospects (think how many new jobs and opportunities are lost in the true development of natural areas, tourism , cultural and environmental). In our Italian territory, so lucky also included environmental crisis of many natural habitats and the fragmentation of populations of wild species (wild and excessive pressure due to urbanization of farmland productive, but also the abandonment of mountain areas and marginal) led to the disappearance and even local extinction many plant species, once common (remember, for agricultural areas, not just the cornflower, or the tulip fields, but even the most common poppy) and of great biological importance, along with an unspecified number of animal species, of which (like many insects) often do not even suppose to exist.
THE WORLD AND 'CHANGE, NO POLICY!
The interest in the plants, thanks to the rediscovery and recovery of customs and traditions, in recent years has steadily grown in public opinion, but this phenomenon is not matched by an increase in attention, though not a skin by the policy and many areas of application and technical society, including media personnel.
In a situation like the current one characterized by a slow but progressive awareness of the need to profoundly revise the concept of "economic progress" and "quality of life," the importance of preserving biodiversity (Habitats Directive and Countdown 2010, only to remember the commitments by the European Union), the need in terms of scientific and technical issues to address in a comprehensive manner, so as to overcome the sectoral vision (which often leads to choices profoundly wrong) and which would take into account the complexity of environmental systems, an attempt to overcome the difficulties of dialogue between policy makers, researchers, heads of government sector and the various technicians who deal with environmental issues (rivers and reservoirs, roads, tourism, agriculture, civil protection, etc.). it is really incomprehensible and anachronistic choice of the Province of Ancona to focus on a project at odds with all the general objectives of environmental sustainability and sound management of the territory.
There are more and more farmers using herbicides in an irresponsible manner outside of cultivated areas, but also ordinary citizens that spray the grass strips with herbicides to prevent the development of natural vegetation in any way without assessing the adverse effects on biodiversity loss, maturity, stability and functionality, as well as the stability of the ground. The practice of weeding, erroneously considered an alternative to mowing, it is now proposed by the Province of Ancona for the "dignity" of public roads and with the flimsy excuse of fighting pollen allergies (knowing full well that, once the first treatment, you will be forced to continue in subsequent years to prevent the proliferation of more aggressive herbs, free to expand following the disappearance of the vegetation that presided over the ground).
roadsides (anything but decent) at the Forest Castelfidardo (above, in March 2009) and as a way of blooming buttercups, simply treated by mowing, in the Parco del Conero (below, in March 2009).
so manifestly absurd situations occur because of the absurd and irrational ways to intervene in complex environmental problems without adequate preparation, with narrow criteria and objectives are extremely limited, as well as in a cultural context where the natural condition is that appearing as disorganized and less attractive, while the artificial is regarded, even by the general public and the media, as orderly and reassuring.
HABITATS
The roadsides are treated as if it were uniform and repetitive situations. In fact, the roads, especially those of provincial and local interest, through very different environments and affect many habitats, often of great interest, even for the simple fact that throughout the hills, dominated by industrial and urbanized settlements, most remained part of biodiversity is now concentrated along roads and rivers.
lets you control the luxuriance of the grass cover of grass (both urban green areas, and those of secondary grasslands of the hills and mountains), areas not under cultivation, the yards and grassy road margins favoring plants perennial (mostly emicriptofite) and which tend to uniformly cover the soil enriched with other species and to develop and maintain a stable coverage (and protection) of the land. That represent the best protection of soil erosion, which is the entrance of annual grasses and aggressive. The cenosis that have adapted to local conditions and structured penetrating, even in the root system, after decades of management by mowing, in the early stages of maturity reached a homeostasis that allows them to maintain a level of stability that can tolerate long periods of time (even a few years) between action and cut the next.
weed control, a practice that was born and should remain confined to the narrow cultivated land, serves to eliminate competition with wild species of cultivated plants, and determines, when used improperly and over large areas of grass component of road embankments, an immediate reset of the maturity and complexity of the plant cenosis gradually acquired, selected and adapted after several decades (from 30 to 50) of correct management practices.
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| On roadsides (anything but decent) in the Camera (maprile 2010) which have already been made is that the deiserbo mowing, in comparison to an example of the way with flowers of radicchio she (Hyoseris radiata), along the main road in the Parco del Conero (April 2010), a weed risk, but besides being very attractive has a "defect" di ridurre naturalmente lo sviluppo vegetativo della comunità vegetale! |
NESSUN VANTAGGIO
E’ bene chiarire che il diserbo dei bordi stradali, rispetto al tradizionale intervento di sfalcio, non presenta nessun vantaggio:
- l’aspetto dei bordi trattati è oltremodo sgradevole dal punto di vista estetico (FOTO);
- non limita in alcun modo il numero degli interventi in quanto non elimina la necessità delle operazioni di sfalcio;
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Effetti degli interventi di diserbo: sopra lungo la strada Pianello di Jesi - Poggio San Marcello, one of the first to have had the privilege of being included among those selected for testing (March 2009) under the long road from Crocette Castelfidardo down to the main Adriatic road passing under the Selva ( March 2009). | |
However treatment with pesticides leads to numerous direct damages and creates the conditions for serious adverse effects, and sometimes not recoverable:
- does not allow the vegetation semi play the role of defending the land and sets out the road slopes to erosion and landslides, that in our region, given the abundance of clayey soil is particularly widespread and severe (PHOTO);
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Above: a landslip road embankment immediate result of the intervention of weeding . Note that the landslide has affected only the section of slope where the spraying had been carried out (March 2010); below disastrous stretch of the Provincial dell'Aspio at Polverigi years now in continuous and unstoppable landslide (shining example of everything what you should do to prevent instability, which can be determined only by complete ignorance o da cinico calcolo). | |
- arreca danni gravi alla vegetazione, che perde istantaneamente diversi decenni di maturazione accumulati con il tempo, e provoca la scomparsa locale di numerose specie e l’impossibilità, in alcuni casi del ritorno allo stato precedente, neppure dopo l’abbandono della pratica (dopo due o tre interventi in anni successivi si annulla anche la carica dei semi del terreno);
- arreca danni diretti ed indiretti anche alla fauna minore, basti pensare agli effetti sulle popolazioni di carabidi che hanno uno stretto rapporto col terreno e con la qualità della copertura erbacea;
- Makes it compulsory intervention in later years, as the bare bands are treated, if not more invaded by a few annual species particularly vigorous and aggressive
- you buy unnecessary equipment and chemicals, as well as harmful, but do not invest improving the knowledge, preparation of technical as well as matching of resources and techniques of maintenance of slopes.
- it leads to a loss of maturity of marginal ecosystems, thus reducing the complexity and functionality from the perspective of both plants and animals, taking also into account that in many hilly areas the roads are the last centers conservation of biodiversity. An illustrative example: If the Province of Pesaro-Urbino needs to take this absurd project there would be a realistic possibility of decreeing the final disappearance of a species, one of the few endemic in our region, the Polygala pisaurensis, growing only on its own road embankments band subcostiera between Pesaro and Fano.  | follows
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Another troubling assumption is that the many statements that appear at first sight or irrational result of shallowness and distraction, are nothing but actions planned to feed and maintain many small active situations of fragility, which may eventually become apparent failures of natural origin, in order to activate emergency procedures periodically environmental and drain so that funds are not otherwise available. 
Two examples of the numerous and very different habitats that can be crossed by public roads: on limestone wall with flowering of umbrella Puglia (Tordylium Apulum) on the road for Conero (April 2010), in humid environments with populations of butterbur (Petasites hybridus) in the valley of the Boran (tributary dell'Aspio) along the road from Camerano down to the water and then goes back to the Conero, (April 2010). 
DAMAGES FROM WEED 
