Alpine agriculture

Alpine agriculture

 

Having grown up and worked on a farm in England, seeing the differences with the Swiss way of farming fascinates me.

Firstly, the scale of the agricultural operations here are distinctively smaller than those back in England. In the winter, the farmers live in Kandersteg but as spring and summer progress, they move to higher altitude in the Kandertal, Gasterntal or Ueschinental. The reasons for moving are predominately weather related due to the extreme seasonality – in winter snow covers most of the hillsides and avalanches create danger so the village proves more suitable. As snow starts to melt, grass starts to grow. In higher regions, the grass is exposed to more sunlight so photosynthesises quicker. Nutritious and mineral-rich alpine plants grow higher up, improving the condition of livestock and quality of their produce.

The animals themselves differ greatly from English stock. The Simmental cows, a breed that originates from the Bernese Oberland, are used for both diary and beef. Their young are renowned for rapid growth, and their meat has a strong, flavoursome taste.

 

 

Whilst hiking you’re likely to find some rather large, docile, woolly creatures nearby the path, these are Valais Blacknose sheep (to locals, known as Walliser Schwarznasenschaf). There are also lots of domesticated goats dotted around the mountains.

 

 

For all the tractor enthusiasts out there, Switzerland offers lots of the vintage kind. There’s no need for new, large, expensive, powerful machinery as there’s simply not the space or use for them. Instead farmers use small but effective machinery on their steep land.

A week before I came to KISC we had just finished making our farm’s silage – grass that is cut then stored in covered pits or silos, allowing it to ferment, creating winter fodder for our sheep. When I arrived in Switzerland, the local farmers had also just finished their silage, albeit a much smaller process with most of the grass being collected in by hand. In the last few weeks the farmers have made the most of the sunny weather by making hay – dried grass – another feed for the livestock.

The ecological effect of agriculture is somewhat less in the Swiss Alps than in England. The steep slopes prevent such an extent of soil compaction occurring from the grazing animals. The grazing itself is also beneficial for the environment as shorter grass lessens the likelihood and impact of landslides. Less fossil fuels are burnt by machinery as manpower carries out a greater percentage of the work. The land has more time to recover from the impact of grazing as the animal stocking rate is lower and only graze areas in certain seasons.

The balance between agriculture and nature is a key concept of environmental sustainability and at the moment Switzerland seems to have it just right.

Annie Carr (UK)

STS Summer 2013

 

 

Ecology and Imagination

A couple of weeks ago a friend asked me this question: “Would you prefer donating a percentage of your salary for environmental purposes or change the way you live in order to be more ecological?” I was not happy with his question. This question implied that in order to be ecological you need to make sacrifices – one way or the other.  That question is a trap; people need to realise that being environmentally friendly is not a matter of making sacrifices or compromises. In fact, it is the opposite; when you respect the environment and exploit it in imaginative ways it is not only nature that benefits itself but also you as a person and society in general.

Allow me to show some examples of imaginative use of natural resources.

Here you can see a merry-go-round that pumps clean ground water from a well.

 

 

Another good example of imaginative use of resources is our very own jucinator where you can cycle in order to make a delicious smoothie!

 

On a larger scale the Zollverein School of Business Management and Design building uses water pumped from the nearby mine to insulate and heat the entire building – which is both more efficient and environmentally friendly.

There are many more examples of creative design both in small scale and large scale projects you will discover around the world (and your very own neighbourhood). The important thing you need to remember is that being environmentally friendly is not a chore but could be very fun instead!

Orestis (CY)

STS Summer 2013

Seasonal changes around Kandersteg

As a not that traveled Brazilian I was amazed seeing snow around Kandersteg , especially during summer, and how fast the landscapes change from one week to the other. I started observing the landscapes and compare weeks to find out the changes in the environment. This post could be quite obvious for those who live around here for some time or have a similar weather where they live, but not for this Brazilan here, no.

Lotschenpass 18.06.2013

Lotschenpass one month later

 The first thing that is quite diferent is the amount of water in streams, some of them disapeared but some, like the Kander, have increased volume.Thinking about it makes sense: once most of the water here come from snow melting on the montains, so some snow disapeared and the Kanderfirn glacier (Kander river origin) is still there, but the heat makes the amount of snow melting faster. So that eventually will affect the species of trees found near those water sources, depending on the amount of water they need or if the rivers take some soil and affect erosion. Also, when the temperatures arise, snow melts and grass start to grow on the montains and some flowers come with it. The soil gets more humid and we can see a LOT of snails, slugs and salamanders, those cold blooded animals, that need the heat of the sun and need a greater amount of water once their skin looses too much water to environment.

The farmers gradually take the cows uphill, after the tasty flowers and grass, that make their milk taste better (it tastes sweet, really nice milk), so it is really funny to think about it, ‘cause when we shorties arrived here in june, the cows were in flat areas, most of them were still on the villages. Now on every hike you go you can see some cows on the way, and each time you go on a hike they are a little bit higher on the hill, until they get to the farms where they are taken care of, and the grass on the valley already grew and is being cut and dried to be kept for winter time.

This is an overall view and I haven’t talked about the insects that are out showing aroung, but it is really nice to think of the ecossystem and how everything is connected and that things influence each other.

Adri (BR)

STS Summer 2013

 

 

Race across Europe

Modern travel is great. Airports and budget airlines help make the world smaller and make it easy for us to visit new places, see new horizons and travel further, faster. 

I used to travel a lot by plane - using cheap flights to open quick travel all over Europe.

I never considered using the train, considering it "too slow", "inconvenient" and "expensive".
Coming to KISC, with a fresh environment and different way of thinking persuaded me to try taking the train home to the UK for a holiday. So I packed plenty of books and magazines for the hours ahead of me. Next I got on the internet to see how many connections it would take me to get home. The answer, pleasantly low - 4 from sleepy Kandersteg village, through to a similarly sleepy commuter belt town near London.

My journey was all booked for Kandersteg - Bern - Paris - London - Welwyn Garden City. I found it slightly cheaper booking the different segments separately with Rail Europe (Bern-Paris), Eurostar (Paris-London) and local tickets at either end.

I'll take you through my day of travel and race myself on a similar journey - but by air.

05:50 and I'm standing at Kandersteg station - a familiar spot, unfamiliar time of day. Waiting for the 05.54 train, trying not to think to much about the early start, and instead enjoy the alpenglow and approaching dawn on Blumlisalp instead. 

As I travel down the valley, looking back up to the Alps, I think about the equivalent flight and realise that I would be on this same early train - travelling to Bern on my way to the airport.

07:29 see's me leaving Bern on the TGV - who knew that French high speed trains came so far into Switzerland?! I settle into the coffee and gipfelli that I hunted down in Bern station and wonder what to read first. First impressions of the TGV - very comfortable - but disapointingly slow for the fastest passenger trains on the planet.

09:30 see's me travelling through france like a speeding bullet. It turns out that the TGV travels through Switzerland at the speed of a regional train. Across the boarder in France, high speed rails let our driver put his put on the accelerator. 
Where would I be if I was on the plane? Well, I'd just have arrived at Geneva Airport and would be fighting with baggage checkin and security checks for the 11:25 flight to London Luton. 2 hours checking procedure (compared to 2 minutes for the train) - means that train is winning the race.

12:30 see's me in Paris, enjoying the sun. I'm travelling light, so decide to walk from Gare de Lyon across to Gare du Nord for Eurostar. Walking in Paris is lovely - lots to see and I pick up a fresh baguette for lunch. The metro provides a quick simple alternative for a rainy day. In the plane, I would be passing high overhead now, moving into the lead in this race. 

At 16:00 I pull into London St Pancreas station, Eurostar proved as quick and comfy as the TGV before. From here, it is a short hop across the road to Kings Cross and the 20 minute commuter train to my final destination. By 17:30, I am at my final destination. 


You may be wondering now, who won the theoretical race - of train vs plane. Well, unsurprisingly the plane pulled through and won. It landed at 12:05 GMT, a short taxi around the airport, the wait for bags and then a 30 minute drive sees me at the finish line for 13:30. 
But despite this, I am happy. As they say, "its not the destination, but the journey". I had a great day watching Switzerland and France slide by, exploring Paris and reading. The experience was a lot more relaxing than the stress of airports and security checks. And in any case, I expected the plane to win by more than 4 hours.
Also, more importantly, I had produced in the region of 1/20 the amount of Carbon Dioxide as the equivalent journey by air.

This method is maybe not so easy with a Scout group in tow -changing trains and organising the logistics. But having said that, it is not much more difficult then getting a group through the airport. We spoke to 8th Holborn Scouts who travelled to KISC by train this winter.

"I was at times rather apprehensive of making the trip this time all the way by rail, but actually it all worked out. It may assist others coming from the UK to have the following details on your website, as it took some effort to work out the logistics!"

They took the following journey:

 

London St Pancras dep. 0923 Eurostar to Paris Gare du Nord arr. 1247.

Go downstairs to the Metro, two stops on RER (Express Metro and Metro): follow signs to RER line ‘D’. (Buy a metro ticket from the machines. They have a touch screen and an English button. Cash and cards are accepted. All southbound RER ‘D’ trains stop at the Gare de Lyon, but always check the TV screens. At Gare de Lyon look for ‘Grand Lignes’ in the main hall upstairs.)

Paris Gare de Lyon TGV dep. 1423 to Basel SBB arr. 1726.

Basel dep. 1731 Eurocity to Spiez arr. 1902 (change trains across platform).

Spiez dep. 1912 Regional-Express to Kandersteg arr. 1941.

 

Rail isn't the answer for every trip, but it is definately worth consideration - on the carbon saving alone. But also for the overall experience and as a mode of transport, it is full of surprises.

 

Jon (UK)

Programme Director

 

 

Shimmering, Soft, Six Sided, Snowflakes!!

In the past week we have had 30cm of fresh snow turning the Kander valley back into a Winter postcard. At the moment cycling to and from KISC freezes our hair and gives us a fresh new coat of snowflakes. If you put a gloved hand out in front of you it is easy to see the perfect six sided shape.

So a question was asked during a staff coffee break; how do snow flakes form?
I know that my answer to this question would interest our guests as well as our Staff team…

Snowflakes are created when ice crystals form around suspended dirt particles in the atmosphere. The crystal grows in size until it can no longer be held in suspension and so it falls to the ground.

But if they form with dirt particles and water why are the snowflakes white in colour?
This is because of how our human eye perceives colour. Although it is not truly ‘white’ our brain compensates for a light source, therefore the other colour tints are subtracted and we see it as white. The snowflake scatters light over all its surface and into all its other colours and our brain only sees white.

Are there different shapes of snowflakes?

Yes there are, the snowflakes formed in very cold temperatures have sharp tips with branches on their arms. In warmer temperatures the snowflakes grow slower and have less intricate shapes. The symmetry of snowflakes can be affected by a number of environmental factors such as uneven temperatures. The shape of a snowflake reflects the weak hydrogen bonds within the water molecules. The shape of the snowflakes is dependent on the alignment of the water molecules.

Why is KISC’s crystal in the shape of a snowflake?

The Crystal was first used as the logo of the World Rover Moot in 1953, where it was also raised the first time as a flag. The idea behind it is that it’s composed of 6 fleur-de-lis / arrowheads, the symbol of Scouting, thus uniting two essential elements of KISC together, representing the essence of the Centre. It’s resemblance to a snow crystal transmitted the Centre’s dedication to Alpine Adventures, often taking place on snow-covered mountain peaks in the Swiss Alps, while keeping the Scouting element as a core component of both the  logo and the Centre.

And just as the arrowheads combine to form something new, Scouts from all over the world came together at the 5^th World Rover Moot in 1953 and still do today. Through this, the Crystal also represents the bonds of friendship that are formed at KISC.

Have a nice Winter.

Melanie (UK)

Assistant Programme Director

with a little help from Pol (LU)