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The Forest of Violins: Five Years After Vaia

From the Vaia avalanches to the onslaught of the Norway spruce bark beetle: the resonant forest of Val di Fiemme is fighting to stay alive.

Five years after Storm Vaia, the Fiemme Valley still shows signs of a compromised balance. The felling of thousands of fir trees has opened the way to a second critical front: the spread of bark beetle printer (Ips typographus), a wood-eating insect that is particularly aggressive towards Norway spruce. The fallen logs in 2018 created ideal conditions for its proliferation; in 2023, pheromone detectors recorded densities tripled above the alert threshold.

On the affected slopes, large patches of red and dried-out trees are now appearing, an early sign of further hydrogeological risks and a potential increase in fires. Summer warming—with temperatures more than two degrees above the historical average—is allowing the bark beetle to complete up to four reproductive cycles a year, accelerating a process of degradation that is difficult to contain.

A slow resource, threatened by rapid change

Resonance fir requires a long time, up to two centuries, to develop the structural characteristics necessary for violin making. However, the climate that for centuries made the altitudes of the Fiemme Valley favorable—moderate temperatures, limited temperature fluctuations, and regular growth of the tree rings—is rapidly changing. At the same altitude, fir trees today grow in a warmer and more unstable environment, with direct effects on the quality of the wood.

Storm Vaia, rising summer temperatures, and bark beetle pressure raise questions about the future availability of quality wood. The violin-making industry risks finding itself faced with a scarcer and more unstable resource.

The memory of trauma in wood

Even in a fragile context, elements of resilience are not lacking. Some of the felled trunks still have an intact internal structure and, after controlled seasoning, display particularly interesting acoustic properties. Luthiers observe how the fibers, stressed by the storm, can generate a broad and stable tonal response: a phenomenon described as "traumatic memory," that is, the wood's ability to retain its original harmonic tension.

The denomination “resonance fir”" refers not only to the final sound quality of the instruments, but to a phenomenon observable already during the selection phase. The most homogeneous trunks, when struck with a hammer near the pith, produce a clear and prolonged vibration, lasting more than three seconds.

This "“differentiated percussive response”" guides foresters in identifying the most suitable specimens for violin making. According to tradition, Antonio Stradivari perfected the technique by introducing a second, off-beat stroke, useful for revealing any internal discontinuities.