The use of cork oak in the ecological and landscape restoration of the Latium Hills

The cork oak (Quercus suber L.) is a western Mediterranean speciesfrequently found in Italy along the Tyrrhenian coast and on the islands.Its economic importance is well known, but the species is alsoecologically precious. Notably, in fact, it is extremely resistant toforest fires.Because of its properties a project is on its way to restore themarginal lands of northern Latium through the reforestation withselected specimens of cork oak. The main aims of the project are:the genetic comparison between cork oak of different Italian provenancesthe establishment of an experimental arboretum which will collect corkoak deriving from the 34 main European areasthe running of experimental trials on innovative reforestationtechniques, such as the Miyawaki method.The methodology and initial results of the project are reported.