As a consequence of past deforestation, degraded areas in Italy have been subjected to afforestation since the beginning of the XXI century. These afforestations have been done mainly with conifers (Pinus nigra, Pinus pinaster, Pinus halepensis, Pinus pinea), and with the aim to 1) protect the soil and to 2) prevent floods. Exotic forest tree species have been used for the afforestation of selected sites of the Apennine. In the case of Douglas fir, it is possible to state that after ninety years the results are very good in terms of both ecological adaptability and high growth-rate.Nowadays, the lack of silvicultural treatments, the ageing processes, insect and fungi outbreaks have led pine afforestations to a condition of an unsteady biological equilibrium in many sites. Moreover, this condition seems to be due to additional factors related to climate change such as wind storms and dryness. The restoration of these pine afforestations is therefore one of the main aims of the present Italian forest management policy which aims to increase their level of resilience. In particular, the priority of the researchers has been given to the most fragile stands where three possible objectives of restoration measures should be considered:To rehabilitate conifer stands by introducing native broadleaves when these stands are in a very degraded condition, and when the local wood energy chain needs to be started;To conserve the conifer stands in the cases where the cultural, aesthetic and recreational functions, are the prevailing obtainable ecosystem services;To foster the mixed stands, with the conifers of the old cycle and native broadleaves, which could increase resilience to the extreme events.In regards of Douglas-fir stands, new silvicultural models have been developed which aim to a) conserve these stands and to b) combine a higher growth rate with a much improved mechanical tree stability.

In forestlands on steep slopes, where the shallow soil can be considered a non-renewable resource, erosion is of special concern. The vegetation covers, at both soil and canopy level, provides essential protection to the soil against the rainfall erosivity and reduces considerably the water erosion rate. Consequently vegetation management may affect soil erosion. We focused our attention on old coppice beech forest growing on a steep slope (28-32°) and subjected to conversion to high stand. With the aim of obtaining information on surface water flow and the mineral soil loss, three runoff-erosion plots (10 m long ´ 3 m wide) were installed in catchments in Lombardy Alps (Intelvi Valley, Como) at three stands: a coppice 40 years old (CpS 1968) and two conversions from coppice to high forest respectively cut in 1994 (CvS 1994) and 2004 (CvS 2004). Water run-off and sediment losses were collected from June to October 2008 and from May to October 2009 together with stand characteristics, LAI, soil surface cover, canopy cover and fine-root traits. Our results showed that the conversion practices significantly affect the water runoff and soil erosion with the younger conversion CvS 2004 showing the highest erosivity. This was due to the lower values of tree density, canopy cover, soil surface cover and fine-root biomass and length. The old coppice stand (CpS 1968) together with the older conversion stand (CvS 1994) showed comparable values of soil erosion. Therefore, the major role in protecting soil from erosion played by old coppice stand is recovered by the conversion stand after a number of years since harvesting. Our study highlights that abandoned old coppice stand plays an important role in protecting soil from erosion and claims consideration in forest management of steep forestland stands.

Serbian spruce (Picea omorika (Pančić) Purk.) is a rare and endangered tertiary relict and endemic species, with restricted and fragmented natural range in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, mainly around the mid-course of the Drina river. Since the middle of the 19th century, its natural range declines constantly, followed by a decline in the number of mature individuals. The decline of this forest species is slow and mainly attributed to poor regeneration and low competing ability. Given the foreseen worsening of the climate in forthcoming decades, this decline can only accelerate. In recent years, dieback related to drought has been observed as response to extreme weather events suggesting that Serbian spruce will face difficulties in adapting to climate change within its natural range. However, successful use of Serbian spruce in Central and Northern Europe indicates potentially large adaptive potential of this species which, along with the high genetic variability, outweigh the limited morphological variation, self-fertilization, and limitations related to the restricted natural range in the first place, and, indicates possible directions of migration in the second place. In this paper, current conservation actions are discussed, and strategies for the species survival in a changing environment are suggested. Since migration and adaptation are the least likely responses of this species to climate change, measures such as assisted migration may be the only strategy which will enable persistence of Serbian spruce. Current conservation programs, limited to in-situ actions, need to be supplemented with ex-situ actions and strategies. In the worst case scenario, i.e. for species such as Serbian spruce which are unable to migrate and/or adapt to changing climate, the most suitable sites should be identified and colonized in order to prevent extinction in the near future.