Mountain Forest Project in GR halted over wolf dispute
The Mountain Forest Project has been forced to suspend its volunteer work in Val Medel. The reason: the hobby hunting lobby is fighting against the nature conservation project, which operates throughout Switzerland.
In the canton of Graubünden, where around 60 wolves currently live, the vote on the revision of the federal hunting law is causing serious tensions.
The Mountain Forest Project, which operates throughout Switzerland and Europe, is no longer welcome everywhere in the Bündner Oberland.
The foundation, based in Trin GR, must bring its long-standing volunteer work in Val Medel in the Surselva to an end this week. The reason is the opposition to the revision of the federal hunting law. Two farmers, on whose land clearing work was due to be carried out until October, terminated their cooperation.
Martin Kreiliger, director of the Mountain Forest Project in Trin, confirmed on Thursday, in response to an inquiry, reports in the regional media to that effect. In the Lugnez valley, it was the municipality that had already suspended cooperation with the Mountain Forest Project in August. There too, the reason was the foundation's stance on the hunting law.
Mountain Forest Project director Kreiliger declined to comment further on the conflicts in the Surselva, where almost all of the wolves living in the canton of Graubünden are found. He said he wanted to seek dialogue with those affected.
In Val Medel, volunteers from the Mountain Forest Project have been working for 30 years. The hurricane Vivian left severe devastation in the protective forest there in 1990. On (this) Thursday, an event was due to look back on what had happened. According to the newspaper «Südostschweiz», the event was cancelled.
Mountain Forest Project active in 16 locations in Graubünden
The Bergwaldprojekt (Mountain Forest Project) held its first volunteer deployment in 1987 in the North Graubünden municipality of Malans, under the motto: Everyone talks about the forest — we go there. The organization currently operates at 41 sites in Switzerland, 16 of which are in Graubünden. Across Europe, it currently sends around 6,000 people to 130 deployment sites in forests.
The organization opposed the revision of the federal hunting law because the wolf is important to the mountain forest ecosystem.
Since the extermination of large predators in Switzerland, ungulate populations have steadily increased. This has a major impact on natural regeneration in the forest, as wildlife feeds on buds and fresh shoots, among other things, thereby threatening the growth of young trees. Where protective forests are concerned, wildlife browsing on young trees also has implications for human safety.
Hunting plays an important role in regulating wildlife populations. However, hunting alone is not sufficient to keep wildlife numbers stable. Wildlife populations have steadily increased over recent decades, and so too have the resulting forest damages.
Unlike in the lowlands, regeneration in mountain forests is slow and limited to three to six tree species. This sparse diversity of young growth is threatened by selective wildlife browsing and, increasingly, by climate change. Yet precisely in times of change, we depend on diversity in order to be prepared for an uncertain future. The presence of wolves has led to a significant reduction in damage to forest regeneration caused by ungulates. On the one hand, the wolf reduces wildlife numbers, and on the other, it distributes them more evenly throughout the forest, so that heavy, localized damage no longer occurs to the same extent.
The revised hunting law permits the preventive culling of wolves even before they have caused any damage and without requiring herd protection measures to be in place. The condition of the forest is not sufficiently addressed in the law. The Bergwaldprojekt supports hunting, the regulation of wolves in cases of damage, and the need to support agriculture in the event of livestock losses and with herd protection measures. However, all of this is already guaranteed under existing law.
For the wolf to fulfill its vital role in the mountain forest ecosystem, it needs your NO vote at the referendum on the revised hunting law on 27 September 2020.
