Chestnut woods on madonie mountains (Sicily, Italy): Reasons for abandonment and possibilities of recovery

The status of the chestnut woods on the Madonie Mountains (Sicily, PA) was investigated. During the last years, the surface of chestnut woods on the Madonie Mountains has been decreasing as well as their utilisation has changed because of chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica) attacks. Therefore, three plots located in the Madonie mountains were studied to investigate the effects of chestnut blight attack. The first results here exposed stress the strong relations between the entity of chestnut blight attack and the density and age of the coppice.