Parco Fluviale del Nera

The territory of Nera River Park has a mainly longitudinal course: it is crossed by the middle - lower course of the river Nera for about 20 kilometers and is characterized by a narrow valley bottom dominated by high mountains covered with woods.
Its flora is diversified: olive groves along the whole piedmont strip and part of the mountain area; broadleaf trees on the steep mountain slopes; herbaceous species, above all Graminaceae suitable for the spring pasture of cattle and sheep, on the highest mountains; arboreal and shrubby species of the Mediterranean maquis - ilex trees (Quercus ilex), Aleppo pines (Pinus halepensis), and Strawberry trees (Arbutus unedo) - in the woods. A very rare and endemic species is Ephedra major or Ephedra nebrodensis, an example of surviving flora of the Tertiary Age, with only a few stations in Italy, among which the most recess rocky areas of the Park.
The fauna can be divided in two categories: the fauna of the watercourses, among which the brown trout (Salmo trutta fario), and the mountain fauna including several birds of prey, like the Short-toed Eagle (Circaetus gallicus) and the Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) and, in the most inaccessible and lonely areas, the wild cat (Felis silvestris) and the pine marten (Martes martes).
There are thousands of bats (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) which, during the winter, find shelter in the caves of Marmore Waterfall.