State Forestry Corps (Corpo Forestale dello Stato)

The State Forestry Corps was founded in 1943 and in the beginning used a plate with the red letters C.F.S. (Corpo Forestale dello Stato) on the first line and a serial number on the second (picture number 1) while front plaes had only one line (picture number 2). In 1982 the format became CFS 000 AA on a single line, as you can see in the third picture and last, in 1997, the look of the plates changed a little bit (picture number 4). There have never been special groups of numbers for each kind of vehicle. Note that at the present time the State Forestry Corps doesn't have the little green star used on all other military vehicles, but the symbol of the Italian republic, as normal vehicles. I want to thank Marcello Taverna Adolfo Arena very much respectively for the first and for the second picture.

CFS plate
Picture 1: 1943 - 1982 (rear)
CFS plate
Picture 2: 1943 - 1982 (front)
CFS plate
Picture 3: 1982 - 1997
CFS plate
Picture 4: 1997 - Today

The plates of the trailers have the letters CFS followed by 3 black numbers and then by a red "R" (it stands for "rimorchio"), as you can see in the picture number 5. Anyway, I also saw a trailer that had a normal CFS plate like other vehicles, while the motor had a cop of the same plate. Many thanks to Roberto Pola who sent this picture to me.

Targa CFS
Picture 5: Trailer

Since 2000, in regions with special constitution (Valle d'Aosta, Trentino Alto Adige, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Sicily and Sardinia) the Forestry Corps can have special plates. I'm sure about such plates in Aosta, Palermo, Trento and Cagliari: the format is respectively CF 000 AO, CF 000 PA, CF A00 TN and CF A00 CA, where all the four letters are in red (except for Trento where only the letters CF are in red) and the number in the middle is in black. AO stands for Aosta, PA for Palermo, TN for Trento and CA for Cagliari. On all these plates there is also the coat of arms of the region placed under the official seal and in those from Cagliari you can also see the red letters VA that stand for "Vigilanza Ambientale" (Environmental Surveillance). You can see the pictures of these plates below: I must thank Marcello Taverna who sent me the picture from Palermo, Stefano Lucchi for those from Cagliari, Adolfo Arena for the picture of the plate from Aosta, and Ivan Sartori and Alessandro De Zuani for the plates from Trento.

CF plate from Palermo
Picture 6: Palermo
CF plate from Cagliari
Picture 7: Cagliari (2 lines)
Targa CFS di Trento
Picture 8: Trento (after 1999)
Targa CFS di Trento
Picture 9: Trento (motorcycle)
CF plate from Cagliari
Picture 10: Cagliari (1 line)
CF plate from Aosta
Picture 11: Aosta

Moreover in 2001 new plates were introduced in Bolzano and in Sardinia (probably to replace the plate from Cagliari). Their format is respectively CF FD 000 and CF VA 000, with all the letters in red: FD should stand for "ForestDienst" (Forestry Corps in German), while VA stands for "Vigilanza Ambientale" (Environmental Surveillance). These plates have also got the blu lateral band like normal Italian plates, as you can see in the last picture. I must thank Alessandro De Zuani and Francesco Cannas very much for these details and Ivan Sartori for the picture that he sent me.

CF FD plate
Picture 12: Corpo Forestale - ForestDienst

In this web site there is also a part of the decree of the president of the provincial board of Bolzano issued on February the 25th, 2000 where you can find, among others, all the sketches of the special CF plates of Bolzano: maybe they are not so fascinating as the real pictures, but for sure they are very interesting! This document was indicated to me by Ivan Sartori, it is in PDF format and it's written in Italian and in German. If you want to see it, click here.




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