Vaia and the increasingly frequent adverse weather events are putting the volunteers in difficulty
BELLUNO. Three years ago, the Vaia storm seriously damaged long stretches of path that were not recovered everywhere and the abundant rainfall, first of snow and then of water, in recent months, have aggravated the situation in many cases.
The Italian Alpine Club mobilized about 700 volunteers, who, however, were unable to reach everywhere. And the funds made available to the Region, 150 thousand euros a year, were not enough. This is why the regional president of the CAI, Renato Frigo, is forced to ask for help. “Additional availability is needed,” he says.
Veneto, for history and tradition, has an important path network consisting of 883 alpine routes (registered in the regional cadastre of alpine trails of the Veneto Region), for a total of 4641 km, 50 via ferrata, 25 aided paths and 44 paths with short aided sections . Belluno is the province with the greatest number of km, 2.718, followed by Vicenza with 1.023 km and by Verona with 551 km.
The sections with the largest number of km of trails under management are Agordo, with 398 km, followed by Valcomelico with 304 km and Asiago with 261 km. For ordinary maintenance, the Region allocates each year, based on the regional law of 14 June 2013, n. 11, the sum of 150 thousand euros, which are assigned to the 19 mountain Unions and mountain communities, which make use of the work of the CAI sections for maintenance, and that of the Alpine Guides for the via ferratas and aided paths.
“The ordinary maintenance work consists not only of restoring the signage with brush and paint, but also trimming, limbing, cleaning and maintenance of the bottom, creation of channels and diverters for the water, closing of shortcuts, laying and maintenance of fixed equipment, etc., but also for identifying the network, the places where to place the signs, periodic inspections to check the status of the routes, which continues to require specific exits to which, especially in recent times, those for cartographic surveying are added paths ”, explains Frigo. “In recent years, as a consequence of climate change, the maintenance of the paths is also changing. Large quantities of rain in a short time, real storms, which in the plains fill the basements with water, in the mountains they become ephemeral streams, with the water that digs to create an outlet path and overwhelms everything it encounters, creating landslides and landslides, often long stretches of path disappear in a few hours ».
«The path is a tool for the tourist development of a territory. Can we continue to think “, asks Frigo,” that such extraordinary maintenance interventions can be carried out by Cai volunteers? That the regional funds made available for the maintenance of the paths and via ferratas after 8 years are still adequate, given the continuous meteorological exceptionalities? “.
In the coming autumn, the Cai Veneto will be the promoter of a series in every province meetings between all the administrations concerned (Region, Province, Mountain Unions, Municipalities, Parks and sections) to take stock of the situation and build together a path that is able to give answers, in the face of increasingly evident emergencies on the passability of the paths of the Venetian mountain.