The Valtellina and UNESCO by Puleo Thomas J.;

Author:Puleo, Thomas J.; [Puleo, Thomas J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 5.1. The fan-shaped scar left by a landslide in a group of terraces in Biazone. Source: T. J. Puleo, 2007.

Not surprisingly, the rate of landslides is much greater in terraced areas than in zones that have retained their original arrangement of rock, soil, and vegetation. Giovanni B. Crosta, Paolo Dal Negro, and Paolo Frattini observed a rate of 4.4 landslides per square kilometer in an area characterized as woodland and grassland as compared to an average of 11.5 soil failures per square kilometer in terraced areas. Bianzone, a heavily terraced area, registered the highest rate in the study of 49.0 landslides per square kilometer.45

Their findings challenge ProVinea’s claim that terraced landholders are the optimal stewards of the environment, a statement echoed in the lauding of a tradition that extends back to Columella who considered the anthropogenic modification of the earth to be an unqualified improvement of it. The heightened program of terrace wall maintenance that ProVinea promotes as a solution to the landslide problem would only go so far in reducing their incidence. Terracing increases the incidence and severity of landslides in an area that is naturally predisposed to them. In an era in which preservation is valued as much as or more than production, terraced landscapes present more liability than benefit, at least in terms of their impact on the local environment.

The conception of a nature that is improved through the work of man was and still is common in the Valtellina. Before the twentieth century, the vast majority of Valtellinesi considered mountain areas over 1000 meters to be a no-man’s-land. Hay was the only crop that was grown and harvested at high elevations, and it was an enterprise that swirled with stories about the dangers of high mountain locations.46 Death records attest to the demise of valley dwellers who suffered falls or were hit by falling rocks. Still, there were those who traveled willingly to the more remote and austere areas on religious pilgrimages, but here also the appeal was the foreboding quality that such locations held. Even today the idea of living in places located at the higher elevations seems to be not as popular among the Valtellinesi as it is among people from outside of the valley. Convenience is certainly a factor but culture plays a roll also. When I made an enthusiastic remark about a spot that I had visited in the Alta Valtellina, a place located at about 1800 meters, one local inhabitant told me with a wave of her hand that life in the mountains was just too tiring.47 There is a proverb that I considered using to open this chapter that captures this attitude perfectly: “A muntàgna sa màia dùma se ta pòrtat” (In the mountains you eat only what you carry).48

Notwithstanding misgivings about nature in its less domesticated form, locals recognized and valued the wild and sublime qualities of the valley’s landscapes for their beauty that lay outside of their productive capacity. Yet except for notable exceptions such as Leonardo

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