⸺ Synopsis
For several centuries, the Magnifica Regola di Villagrande has managed the collective properties of the families of Auronzo di Cadore. After the Vaia storm, there was an uncontrolled proliferation of the spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus), an insect that attacks and kills spruce trees. To safeguard the community’s forest heritage, the Regola has hired a permanent team of lumberjacks. Their task will be to cut the infested trees in order to protect the healthy ones.
Andrea is the president of the Regola who, together with Stefano, oversees the felling of the diseased trees. Cutting the trees is, in this case, a painful but necessary choice to stop this beetle, about which very little is still known. Giuseppe and Aurora, PhD students at the University of Padua, study the insects’ behavior to understand how to fight them and stop the destruction of the forest.
The felled logs are used to produce firewood for members of the Regola and also at the sawmill run by Christian’s family. Here, the timber is enhanced using the latest technologies to give the trees a second life. For hundreds of years, the Regola di Villagrande has been taking care of these woods, and it will continue to do so, with careful forest management that will allow the forests to regenerate.
