It’s not just the Glaciers and Ski Lifts

Thought from members

We often feature articles about the receding glaciers and the intrusion of ski infrastructure into the alpine landscape. The ÖAV is involved in legal cases to try to limit the damage, but there is little that Alpenverein Britannia can do actively to influence outcomes.

Less frequently do we write about the potential pollution that we can affect, but Leanne Mills sent a timely reminder from the Tiroler Bergwacht (Nature Conservation & Environmental Protection). Each spring, volunteers mount a clean-up operation under ski lifts to pick up dropped rubbish and items like poles, gloves, piste maps. As a part of building wider awareness around what is left behind in the mountains, the Bergwacht brings attention to the decomposition rates of different types of rubbish as illustrated. It’s a very useful reminder to “leave no trace”, and whatever you take into the mountains, should be taken out with you when you leave.

Irene Auerbach adds her own personal plea. A single cigarette stub, dropped in natural surroundings, can contaminate 60 litres of water. A fag contains up to 4000 different harmful chemicals, so it should take little imagination to envisage the damage done to animals as well as to humans if these chemicals find their way into the soil or ground water. It takes 2-7 years for a cigarette butt to rot away. You may be standing by the door of a hut where smoking is banned inside, enjoying the view as well as your cigarette; when you’ve finished it, don’t just drop the stub - find the container that’s guaranteed to have been provided.

The impact of humans on wildlife is another consideration. In the UK, plants in the wild are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Similar protection is given in the Austrian alps as illustrated in the second Bergwacht poster. For animals, Irene comments that wildlife does not look forward to the winter and they have to fight for survival even if undisturbed. The additional energy a bird or a mammal like deer has to expend/waste to flee a human intruder in its habitat - not knowing, of course, that the intruder is delighted to spot it and would never harm it, only wants a photo - can make the difference between life and death. Please, stick to paths and pistes.

In the current issue of the ÖAV magazine Bergauf (#2.2024) there is a further article “Müll unter dem Schnee” which extends the warnings beyond the summer months to the dangers to wildlife of burying rubbish beneath the snow. The bulk of the issue is taken up with very detailed analysis of the receding glaciers, but it is timely to remind ourselves of the other human impacts on the alpine environment.

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