Vineyard Nets — A Deadly Trap for Wildlife: How to Reduce the Risk
Vineyard netting used in viticulture can become a deadly trap for birds, hedgehogs, and reptiles. Here is how winegrowers can reduce the danger.
Ripening grapes are often protected from bird damage using vineyard nets.
However, if vineyard nets are not correctly installed, they pose a serious risk to birds and other animals. The Vineyard Nets Working Group has created a reporting tool that can be used to report incorrectly tensioned nets or birds caught in them.
Anyone wishing to protect vines with netting against bird damage must ensure that wildlife cannot come to harm. However, it repeatedly happens that birds and small animals become entangled in poorly installed vineyard nets. Nets that are not sufficiently taut, nets lying loosely on the ground, and vineyard nets that are not removed immediately after the harvest can prove fatal for birds and other animals. To prevent further suffering, cases of improperly installed nets or wildlife freed from vineyard nets can be reported using the new online reporting form .
The general duty of care requires users of vineyard nets to check them regularly, to remedy any defects immediately, and to free any trapped animals without delay. If animals become entangled in vineyard nets, they must be freed from the net immediately and as gently as possible. If this cannot be achieved within a few minutes, the animals must be carefully cut free from the net and disentangled from the threads. Only if this is not possible and/or if animals are injured must they be taken immediately into the care of a wildlife rehabilitation centre. For larger or defensive animals, it is advisable to contact the game warden.
When private individuals free animals, any damage to the vineyard nets must be kept to a minimum and reported immediately. For such cases — as well as for reporting improperly installed vineyard nets — a new trilingual reporting tool is now available.
The coordinates of the location and the observed facts can be entered there, and up to three documentary photos can be attached. Regional industry representatives will then contact the affected winegrowers and ask them to immediately correct improperly installed vineyard nets, or to remove vineyard nets immediately after harvest. Omissions and violations in this context may be reported and can result in sanctions for the affected wine-growing operations.
Every report is therefore a contribution to preventing animal suffering in the vineyards and to helping nature-friendly and animal-friendly viticulture break through in Switzerland.
