3.1. The Forests in Tuscany in 1936
Concerning the forest inventory of 1870 and the data of 1881, they show that about 70–80% of the regional forest surface was coppiced [
47,
48]. Conifers were used for timber production, while broadleaved were used also for grazing. Oak woods produced acorns to feed pigs, while chestnut forests are managed for producing nuts for human consumption. Concerning coppice woods, they produced firewood and charcoal, fagots and poles. Coppicing occurs also in form of pollarded trees, being the third type of coppice existing in the region.
The situation of the forests in 1936 (
Figure 2) is typical of a rural society well integrated with the economy of the region. Traditional landscape is mainly made of cultivated fields, alternated with forests and pastures. The dominant species in the forests are oaks in the gentlest reliefs, chestnut and beech trees along the Apennine ridge, and stone pines, along the coast planted after the reclamation of the coastal swamps to protect the crops from the effect of the marine aerosol and floods and to produce pine nuts. In the plains the wood is almost absent, with a coverage of only 42,000 hectares (about 5% of the Tuscan woods of the time), as plains were dedicated almost exclusively to agricultural or urban activities. The population, although increased in the major urban centers, has not yet left the rural areas spread over the entire regional territory, which formed a very dense settlement up to the steepest hills.
This close relation between human culture and forests is testified by the study results about the forests management (
Table 2), showing that more than 600,000 hectares out of a total of 827,000 hectares (equal to 72.6%) of broadleaved forests were managed as coppice. This data is particularly important, since it demonstrates that most of the woods in Tuscany have been utilized for centuries, interfering with species composition and structural characteristics, proving that the actual forests have a clear cultural origin.
However, the percentage of forests managed as coppices with respect to the totality of the broadleaved forests was very uneven according to the different landscape units. The highest values are all related to areas that occupy the central and coastal part of the region, especially where the morphology is not excessively harsh (in fact, in Versilia (LU2) and Amiata (LU19) these values are lower). Here, the traditional management of oaks forests was particularly important, since they do not provide only firewood and charcoal, but also acorns, leaves and branches, essential products for animal husbandry. The production of firewood is greater in a coppice than in a high forest, and the cut and transport of the wood according to the traditional techniques was easier, so coppice was largely applied. Moreover, in these areas the cultivation of cereals was more than enough for the local food needs, and the rare chestnut woods were also mostly coppiced to obtain different wood products, such as poles.
The lower values are instead mainly found in mountain areas, with very narrow valleys and with settlements that leaned on the wood not only for the collection of firewood, but also for the direct subsistence of the communities. Chestnut orchards in fact were essential for the local communities, and together with beech forests, they dominated the landscape.
Intermediate values are instead identified for the landscape units with hybrid characteristics between the two previous categories: these are often mountain areas but with large valley floors dedicated to agriculture. The landscape unit of Amiata Mountain (LU19) is peculiar. It can be considered purely mountain, despite it is not part of the Apennines range, and the characteristics of the local forests have been largely influenced by the human activities. In particular, most of the forests of the Amiata mountain were managed as simple coppices to provide fuelwood for the local mining activities that interested this area until the middle of the 20th century; the rest of the forests were mainly composed of chestnut groves, while the agricultural area was densely cultivated as a second job by the miners or used as pastures.
3.2. The Comparison with the Forests in 2016
The comparison with the 2016 situation (
Figure 3,
Table 3) clearly shows how much the wooded surface has increased since 1936. In only 80 years, the surface occupied by forests passes from 38% to 50%, with an average increase of more than 3500 hectares per year. The distribution of this increase according to the different altimetric zones is quite homogeneous, with a slightly higher growth in the hills. However, in 2016 the Tuscan forests are much more compact and with less jagged borders than in 1936, in particular on the slopes of the greater reliefs the characteristic open spaces that fragmented the woods into smaller plots have disappeared. Unfortunately, no recent geographic information is available at the regional level in relation to the type of forest management. Though, the Report on the State of the Forests in Tuscany of 2016 indicates that 63% of the forests of the region are coppices which, compared to 69% in 1936, is a rather high value—albeit decreasing. It is possible that the 2016 value also includes many old coppices and also recently abandoned ones within the definition of “coppice”. These are forests once governed as coppice, but that have now exceeded the usual number of ages between two cuts, but that still present aspects similar to those of the coppices, a situation in which many of these woods are found.
Overlaying the cartographies of 1936 and 2016 (
Figure 4) it is possible to observe how the main phenomena is the increase of forests, that reaches about 448,700 ha of new forested surface on land previously used for other purposes, mainly agro-pastoral activities. On the other hand, about 163,000 ha of deforestation have been recorded, that are mainly located in the Mediterranean part of the region and probably correspond to the removal of degraded forests and maquis for new agricultural land or for infrastructures and buildings. Finally, there are 712,000 ha of forests in 1936 that are still forests.
Comparing the surface of new-formed forests with the total forest cover of 2016, it is possible to obtain the percentage of Tuscan forests deriving from the expansion on surfaces that in 1936 were used for agriculture or as pastures. The values fluctuate between 54% of landscape unit Amiata (LU19) to 20% of the Garfagnana and Val di Lima (LU3), with a regional average of 39%.
The landscape units that have higher percentages of new-formed forests are the ones that in 1936 were characterized by a highly developed agro-pastoral culture (
Table 4). Val d’Elsa (LU9) and Chianti (LU10) are both units in which agriculture subtracted important spaces from the forest, even in areas where agricultural activities were more difficult, relegating it to small scattered plots. With the agricultural abandonment, even if these are landscape units where specialized agriculture (mainly vineyards) is common, the forest has colonized those surfaces that due to the slope are no longer convenient to cultivate. Casentino (LU12), on the other hand, was historically an area dedicated to pastoral activities: transhumance brought there, during the summer, all the herds that had spent the winter in the Maremma to take advantage of the Apennine pastures; consequently, the forest alternated with wide open spaces dedicated to these activities, forming a jagged mosaic of ridge pastures, meadows and forests. Mount Amiata, which historically is dedicated to mining activities, has undergone an almost complete cessation of forest utilizations, since there is no more need of firewood and charcoal for foundries. This situation combined with the local depopulation, led to the abandonment of forest management and of numerous pastures and crops, allowing the wood to occupy them.
Garfagnana (LU3) (20%), Florence-Prato-Pistoia plain (LU6) (28%) and Lucca area (LU4) (32%) are the landscape units that have registered the lowest values of new forests. In the first case, the surface of forests in 1936 was already extremely dominant occupying most of the slopes, leaving however large pastures; consequently, a low increase in percentage in reality corresponds to a high increase in hectares, and in fact the forest in 2016 occupies a large part of the pastures no longer used, both on the mountain ridges, where the beech-woods expanded, and on the valley floors.
The situation in the Florence-Prato-Pistoia basin (LU6) is similar to the Lucca area (LU4: a large part of the first one was and still is occupied by the alluvial plain of the Arno and its tributaries, where the forest cover has always been almost absent). The territories where the woods are concentrated are the reliefs of the Pistoia mountains, but even in 1936 they were already almost completely covered by forests, and consequently the expansion was rather reduced, both in percentage and in hectares, mostly concerning the numerous and scattered abandoned pastures. The Lucca area (LU4) shows a similar situation: it is mainly occupied by a wide alluvial valley where the forest was a marginal land use, but the hills in the northern part, once occupied by an alternation of forests, pastures and cultivated fields, currently present a landscape almost completely occupied by an uninterrupted wood.
Deforested areas, nearly 165,000 ha, are generally scattered all over Tuscany in the borders between the current forests and other lands uses. These are very fragmented surfaces, often of very few hectares, mainly derived from the reorganization of borders. In the lowlands, particularly in the Grosseto area (LU18), this loss can sometimes be identified with the effects of land reclamation.
From the graph with the subdivision between broadleaved and coniferous forests (
Figure 5), it is possible to observe that the percentage of broadleaved forests slightly decreased in the period 1936–2016, from 94% to 93%. Twelve landscape units have registered a loss between −1% (Garfagnana (LU3), Val d’Arno superiore (LU11), Val di Cecina (LU13)) and −15% (Bassa Maremma e ripiani tufacei (LU20)). Compared to 1936, most of the landscape units report a rather high hectare increase in conifer cover, with the exception of Val di Nievole (LU5), Livorno-Pisa-Pontedera plain (LU8), Versilia (LU2), Lucchesia (LU4), Firenze-Prato-Pistoia plain (LU6) and Val d’Elsa (LU9).
The increase of forest surfaces does not follow random models. At regional scale, the landscape changes due to reforestation occurred mostly on mountains and hills, while in the plains of the Arno valley urbanization prevailed reducing the forests with an increasing speed since 1954. In the rural areas of our study, we identified four main types of forest expansion.
The first model (
Figure 6a) identifies the descent of the forest from the mountain slopes towards the valley floors. In 1936 most of the mountain sides were cultivated, but with the passing years, those areas become fewer and fewer suitable for a competitive agriculture, leading to a progressive abandonment and to the consequent colonization by the forests.
The second model (
Figure 6b) is instead more common on low-hilly terrains, and corresponds to the spread of an original forest core—usually in the past regularly managed by the local farmers—all over the surrounding areas, creating a new, wider and compact patch of forest. Again, this process happened due to the abandonment of the less suitable farming areas, where the slopes are not really steep, but not suitable for intensive systems.
The third model (
Figure 6c) is mainly found inside the alluvial plains, and it identifies a process of recolonization of the riversides by the riparian vegetation. This type of forestation can be more or less intense, from just a few meters alongside to dozens of meters in both sides. This increase is also the consequence of planning and conservation policies aimed at protecting the banks of the rivers.
The last model (
Figure 6d) is widespread over all the mountains of Tuscany, mainly in the Apennine range. It corresponds to the abandonment of the pastures located at higher altitudes, once used during the summer. Due to the cessation of transhumance and of the summer utilization of high pastures, forests slowly colonized these terrains, creating huge continual forest patches that cover without interruption the higher part of the mountains, sometimes up to the ridge.
Finally, an overlapping of the results with the presence of protected areas has been carried out (
Figure 7). The system of protected areas includes national parks, regional parks, natural reserves, provincial parks, sites of regional interest, special conservation areas and Natura 2000 sites (sites of community importance, special protection areas). 17.54% of the regional surface is included in protected areas, and 70% (283,477 ha) of protected areas are occupied by forests. Further, 30% (84,484 ha) of actual forests included in protected areas are the result of secondary successions, as this surface was not classified as forests in 1936. On the other hand, 30% of the protected surface is not wooded (equal to 119,704 ha), and more than one fifth of these surfaces (25,690 ha) derives from the deforestation. In addition, two thirds of 1936 forests, actually included in protected areas, were managed as coppice.