Have You Met Arnold?

Arnold is the squirrel that lives behind the Chalet. Last autumn the Work Parties gave his home a make-over. Here’s a picture of the new look.

             I’m not sure if he likes it, but his neighbors sure do. What we did is called coppicing: the Work Parties cut down a part of the trees and bushes at the base. In the next years, new stems will grow from the roots. After a few years we’ll do the same to the other trees in the picture.

With more light reaching the ground, more plant species will grow there, followed by more animals like butterflies and other insects to pollinate them.

The branches we cut will be put in a long pile. This attracts beetles and gives protection to mice, hedgehogs and little birds. (Watch out for Olave and Von Bon!)

The Pinkies in the offices also really like it, as we get more light inside now, and we don’t have to be afraid of trees falling onto the Chalet!

Dries (NL)

Grounds Manager

Diary Of A River

After the big flood 2 years ago the banks of the Kander needed reinforcing. The part of the river in front of KISC was treated right after the disaster. Right now the government is finishing the job a bit downstream of the Centre.

This is a wonderful opportunity to see sedimentation (the deposit of clay, sand and gravel) in action, something I wrote about last December. Over the next months we’ll make photographs of this stretch of river to see where islands and banks form.

Dries (NL)
Grounds Manager

Trash Talk

        At KISC, we do our best to separate as much of our waste as possible, in no less than 20 categories. Most of the recyclables are brought to Kandersteg’s recycling centre. From there they are taken to the different recycling plants across the canton and country.

       Whatever is not recyclable gets collected by a waste incineration plant and is burned to generate electric and heat energy.

 

       In Germany, there is a discussion going on about whether it’s better to recycle as much as possible or to burn as much as possible.

       Both recyclers and incinerators have their own economic interests to defend, of course, but there are also environmental arguments. Recycling saves precious materials, but takes a lot of transporting goods around. Burning produces energy, but also pollutes the air.

       At KISC we choose to separate waste as much as possible. Not only to save the materials, but also because handing in recyclables is for free, while burning our waste costs us money!

Dries (NL)
Grounds Manager

PS. Check out the film we made about recycling!