Val Grande

The territory in part coincides with the Val Grande National Park, the forests of which are almost totally filled by larch, fir and rare spruce trees, broad-leaf varieties like beech and chestnuts trees and mixed forests of oak, maple, ash and birch trees; in higher altitudes the conifer trees are exclusively present in the slopes of Vegezzo, because elsewhere they have been cleared out for grazing activities.

In the areas belonging to the Vegezzo Valley, the lower slopes contain beech and white spruce forests and in higher altitudes, larch forests, and grasslands still used for grazing due to the presence of a few companies that work in the area. The slopes of the Toce Valley are also steep, rocky and contain forests as well.

The grass pastures are found mostly in more accessible areas, close to inhabited villages. Sheep and goats clearly outnumber cattle but horse breeding is almost comparable to cattle breeding as evidenced by the number of animals present.

In most cases, the skeleton structure of old alpine buildings used local materials like stone and wood. These very limited buildings are used for the production of goat cheese.

The inhabited areas are extended rural settlements with lesser importance and were historically inhabited by those populations devoted to mountain pasturing, deforestation/logging and processing of stone. In fact traces of historic pink marble quarries in Condoglia (used since the 14th century, for example, for the construction of the cathedral of Milan) are evidence of the valley's latter occupation.

Furthermore, there are the remains of the defensive Linea Cadorna infrastructure system, built by Luigi Cadorna during the First World War, which extends from Ossola to Upper Valtellina. It contains a complex system of small shelters, mule tracts, barracks, and trenches excavated into the rocks, as seen from Cuzzago in the direction of Verbania.