Lake Villa Nature Reserve

A glacial lake, with water from the subsoil, a niche of interesting species

It is a mountain lakeside peat b asin, with a net contrast between the marshy environment of the lake and the surrounding arid environment. The morphology of the area is glacial : excavation phenomena have created the lakeside basin and the rounded humps ; th e hollowed rock s belong to the group of green stones, deriving from magmatic rocks from the ocean bottom metamorphosed with the corrugation of the Alpine mountain chain. The lake has no natural tributaries : it is fed by underground waters and by an irrigation canal. The marshy vegetation features typic al sequenc es of

population s : in the area around the lake, beside the common reed, you will also find rushes and sedge, including the rare Tormentosa sedge. The lake's waters are home to two rare native plants from the Valle d'Aosta, the Poligono anfibio bindweed and the white water lilie , as well as the bog bean. To the North-West , you will find the priority habitat of "Dry semi-natural grasslands on calcareous substrate with splendid blooming orchids". The fauna in the reserve prevalently consists of amphibians and reptiles ; in addition to the common toad ( important reproductive station),reports have been made of : the green frog, the wall lizard,

the green lizard, the sand lizard and the grass snake. Recently , reproductions of the little grebe, a marshland bird, have been detected. The fishing fauna is represented by cyprinids. The nature reserve, set up in 1992 and run by the Protected areas service, can be reached via the SS26 main road as far as Verrès and then on the regional road to Challand-Saint-Victor (village of Nabian).