by Playfuls Staff |
17th January 2007
Italian ecologists are warning ski developers to use environmentally friendly methods when constructing ski runs to [more] avoid negatively affecting Alpine birds.
The Turin University researchers say they've determined high-altitude ski runs, or pistes, are seriously affecting wildlife habitat in the Alps. They say ski pistes above the tree line result in fewer species and lower numbers of birds, compared with natural grassland at similar altitudes.
Professor Antonio Rolando and colleagues conducted their study at the top of the Susa Valley -- the site of last year's Winter Olympics -- and in the western Italian Alps.
They found the ski runs had fewer species and lower numbers of birds. Areas next to ski pistes also suffered, supporting lower numbers of birds.
"Retaining the bird life of these zones is likely to involve developing new, environmentally friendly ways of constructing pistes, such as only removing rocks or leveling the roughest ground surfaces to preserve as much soil and natural vegetation as possible."
The study appears in the January issue of the Journal of Applied Ecology.
© 2007 UPI
