Naturpark Texelgruppe

The Park's habitats

Geology

Geology
Marble veins in the Lodner / Cima Fiammante group

The entirety of Texelgruppe / Gruppo di Tessa Nature Park is part of the Central Alps from a geological standpoint. In the crystalline rock three areas can be distinguished: the Stubai crystalline in the Timmelsjoch / Giogo del Rombo area (2,509 m), the Ötztal crystalline in the Schnalser Kamm / Cresta di Senales area (also known as the “old gneiss zone”); and the Schneeberg / Monteneve range which encompasses most of the Gurgler range, including Hohe Wilde mountain.

The Granatenkogel area contains another mountain belonging to the Gurgler range, where dark red garnets that can reach the size of a fist have been found. Some gneisses and mica schists contain marble deposits. The extensive marble veins on the left slope of Pfelders / Val di Plan valley and in the Lodner / Cima Fiammante group are particularly noteworthy. Tschigat / Cigot peak is a striking mountain composed of granitic gneiss.

Water and ice have significantly contributed to the formation of the park’s valleys and mountains. During the ice age, great glaciers covered the area that is today Texelgruppe / Gruppo di Tessa Nature Park; well mounds were reshaped into cirques, the valleys were carved out, and in the valley floors landscapes rounded in outline or characterized by striations arose. Side glaciers dug less deep thus forming hanging valleys. The most famous attraction, Partschins / Parcines waterfall in Burggrafenamt / Burgraviato, is among the most impressive waterfalls in the Alps in spring when the mountain snow melts. The abundant water of Zielbach rivulet shoots several meters beyond a rock face and then dashes down for 97 meters as a waterfall.

Texelgruppe / Gruppo di Tessa Nature Park has abundant water thanks to the extensive storage capacity of its widely disbursed loose rock and the abundant water derived from melting glaciers. The Sprons / Sopranes lakes are an impressive example of this abundance of water. Together with the 3000 meters high mountains surrounding them and the pastures below them, they form an extraordinarily beautiful landscape. Texelgruppe / Gruppo di Tessa Nature Park's around twenty lakes were formed by glaciers that either carved basins into the rock or formed cirques due to the presence of water-damming moraines. These lakes, situated in the old gneisses zone, form the biggest lake plateau in the high Alps.

The entirety of Texelgruppe / Gruppo di Tessa Nature Park is part of the Central Alps from a geological standpoint. In the crystalline rock three areas can be distinguished: the Stubai crystalline in the Timmelsjoch / Giogo del Rombo area (2,509 m), the Ötztal crystalline in the Schnalser Kamm / Cresta di Senales area (also known as the “old gneiss zone”); and the Schneeberg / Monteneve range which encompasses most of the Gurgler range, including Hohe Wilde mountain.

The Granatenkogel area contains another mountain belonging to the Gurgler range, where dark red garnets that can reach the size of a fist have been found. Some gneisses and mica schists contain marble deposits. The extensive marble veins on the left slope of Pfelders / Val di Plan valley and in the Lodner / Cima Fiammante group are particularly noteworthy. Tschigat / Cigot peak is a striking mountain composed of granitic gneiss.

Water and ice have significantly contributed to the formation of the park’s valleys and mountains. During the ice age, great glaciers covered the area that is today Texelgruppe / Gruppo di Tessa Nature Park; well mounds were reshaped into cirques, the valleys were carved out, and in the valley floors landscapes rounded in outline or characterized by striations arose. Side glaciers dug less deep thus forming hanging valleys. The most famous attraction, Partschins / Parcines waterfall in Burggrafenamt / Burgraviato, is among the most impressive waterfalls in the Alps in spring when the mountain snow melts. The abundant water of Zielbach rivulet shoots several meters beyond a rock face and then dashes down for 97 meters as a waterfall.

Texelgruppe / Gruppo di Tessa Nature Park has abundant water thanks to the extensive storage capacity of its widely disbursed loose rock and the abundant water derived from melting glaciers. The Sprons / Sopranes lakes are an impressive example of this abundance of water. Together with the 3000 meters high mountains surrounding them and the pastures below them, they form an extraordinarily beautiful landscape. Texelgruppe / Gruppo di Tessa Nature Park's around twenty lakes were formed by glaciers that either carved basins into the rock or formed cirques due to the presence of water-damming moraines. These lakes, situated in the old gneisses zone, form the biggest lake plateau in the high Alps.

Flora and fauna

Flora and fauna
Dwarfshrub heathland

With its altitude difference of almost 3000 meters, Texelgruppe / Gruppo di Tessa Nature Park contains the entire range of habitats found in South Tyrol, from the sub-Mediterranean vegetation zone to the snow line.

On the southern slope of Sonnenberg / Monte Sole mountain in Vinschgau / Venosta valley, secondary steppe-vegetation can be found due to the valley’s arid climate (550 mm of precipitation annually), frequent sunshine, as well as forest clearing and extensive use of the area for grazing for centuries. Nowadays the slopes, which are very sparsely covered with junipers and a colorful mix of berry-bearing shrubs, provide an ideal habitat for various Eastern European steppe inhabitants and Mediterranean, heat-loving flora and fauna. .

Reptiles such as the asp viper and green lizard, as well as insects such as the praying mantis, are common inhabitants of this area. Moreover, this is the only place in South Tyrol where you find exponents (albeit as individuals only) of the wood lark, the barred warbler and the tawny pipit. Heat-loving species such as the rock bunting, the ortolan bunting, the crag martin, the rock partridge, the rock thrush, the orphean warbler and the cirl bunting are either remarkably widespread or have their most northern point of existence here.

The southern slopes of the Texelgruppe / Gruppo Tessa mountains are covered by mixed deciduous and Scots pine forests up to an altitude of around 1,000 meters. The damp valleys are home to beeches and silver firs, whereas on dry soil there are chestnuts, downy oaks, ashes, birches, gray alders, European hornbeams, common maples and sycamores. Deciduous forests offer excellent living conditions for various species of birds and small mammals. Deer also roam about in the area.

The steep, sunny and mostly rocky slopes of Schnalstal / Val Venosta valley are covered with extensive larch forests with interspersed juniper and barberry bushes. Schnalstal / Val Senales is rightly called South Tyrol’s “valley of the Larches”, which are regosol and light-dependent germinators. The deep-rooted larchs grow even on very steep slopes and thus avert erosion and devastation through avalanches and mudslides.

Unlike the sunny slopes of Vinschgau / Val Venosta valley, Pfelderertal / Val di Plan and Passeiertal / Val Passiria valleys exhibit less steep slopes, higher rainfall and lower temperatures. Extended spruce forests interspersed with scattered larches cover these slopes at altitudes ranging from 800 to 1900 meters. Although coniferous forests contain fewer animal species than is the case with deciduous and mixed forests, Pfelderertal / Val di Plan and Passeiertal / Val Passiria valley soffer squirrels, black woodpeckers, crossbills, goldcrests and coal tits accommodating habitats.

Between the timber line at about 1900 meters above sea level and the Alpine grass heaths there is usually a belt of dwarf shrubs. This habitat is characterized by tall, weathered cembra pines, gnarled larches and Alpine roses with their bright red flowers. There are also sizable carpets of heather, bearberry, Alpine azaleas, crowberry and cowberry, interspersed with rocks and boulders. Near the upper timber line, where the woods are not too dense but the dwarf-shrub undergrowth is dense, capercaillies and black grouse are found. Some species, like the edible dormouse, the marten, the badger and the fox which are active only in the dusk or at night, can rarely be seen.

Above the woodland and shrub line, the slopes are covered with vast grassland communities. Parts of these slopes are used for grazing, a practice that over the centuries has wrought a change in the original vegetation owing to flora selection. This area is inhabited by marmots whose warning whistle is often heard by hikers making their way from Vorderkaser / Casera di Fuori to Eishof / Maso Gelato. With a bit of luck you might also catch a glimpse of ermines or mountain hares.

Bare rocks are covered with cushion plants and rosette plants, which can withstand arid conditions and intense sunlight and whose long roots enable them to penetrate crevices and rock clefts. Some animals have also adapted to the extreme conditions in these rocky areas. Chamoix and ibexes deftly gambol along extremely steep and otherwise inaccessible slopes. The ibex, traditionally an inhabitant of the high Alpine regions of Tyrol, was facing extinction from extensive hunting in the late 17th century, but has been successfully reintroduced in recent years. Texelgruppe / Gruppo di Tessa Nature Park is home to rock ptarmigans, ravens and the golden eagle, which regularly builds its aeries here.

The human factor

The human factor
Rableid

Relics of prehistoric settlements, fortifications and places of worship show that the Texel / Tessa mountains were inhabited in very early times. Examples are the heights of Saxnerknott (Saxnerhof) in Oberplars, with its fortification walls, pit dwellings, bowl-shaped stones and several findings of clay fragments; and Gampbichl (also known as Nörggelelöcher), which are two caves northwest of Saxnerknott. Near the Sprons / Sopranes lakes bowl-shaped stones were also found. On the ancient “death-path” form Pfelders (Plan to Tirol / Tirolo, the locals brought their dead, after the snow smelted, for burial to St. Peter’s church in Tirol / Tirolo and at the same time they took newborn babies there to get them christened.

The population increase in the late Middle Ages resulted in the establishment of permanently inhabited agricultural settlements known as "Schwaighöfe" on Alpine pastures at altitudes ranging up to 2000 meters. All of the land on which these settlements were built was owned by noblemen and rented out for cultivation. These farmers used to provide the land owners with cheese, livestock and wool, in return for which they were given grains and salt. Once the farms were no longer self-sustaining the "Schwaighöfe" moved above the altitudes where grains grow. Some of these ancient farms were turned into Alms, among them Grafalm, Mitterkaser / Casera di Mezzo, Rableit, Eishof / maso Gelato, Mairalm, Unterglaneggalm and Seeberalm. Until 1897, Eishof / maso Gelato (altitude 2,070 meters) was the highest-elevation settlement where farming was carried out year-round.

Schnalstal / Val Senales valley has the largest number of sheep in all of South Tyrol. It is a unique, almost primal experience to witness, in late June, the seemingly endless procession of over 1000 sheep being driven through snowfields and glacier firns across Hochjoch / Giogo Alto (2,875 m), Niederjoch / Giogo Basso (3,019 m) and Gurgler Eisjoch / Giogo Gurgl (3,152 m) to the summer pastures of Ötztal.

One of the salient features of both Vinschgau / Val Venosta valley and Burggrafenamt / Burgraviato man-made landscapes’ are the so called Waale, an ingenious network of irrigation canals built by farmers centuries ago without which these farmers would never have been able to farm under the arid conditions with low precipitation that prevailed in Vinschgau / Val Venosta. This system was fed by rivers located higher up in the mountains, sometimes even from areas far above the timber line. Depending on the topology of the area in question, the water flowed either in ditches or in channels cut in the rock or in open wooden channels called Kandeln that were often attached to the rock face at dizzying heights.

Some of these irrigation canals reach a length of 20 kilometers before ramifying in the fields. The “Waalers” were responsible for the functioning of this irrigation system. A hammer loosely fixed to a waterwheel alerted them by its monotonous hammering sound that the water was flowing regularly. In recent decades many of these old canals were abandoned and were replaced by modern irrigation facilities. But some of the canals are still in operation, and are also very popular among people looking for a relaxing place to take a walk.