Wasserschloss Schweiz – The search for the hidden springs – Knowledge


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They provide us with drinking water, are habitats for rare animals and plants and mystical places with a great attraction. However, the sources are not recorded on our maps. That should change now.

Nature enthusiasts are out and about all over Switzerland to look for the last remaining springs. They stick to old source registers from the 1960s and 1970s. This treasure hunt is supported by the advice center created especially for this purpose source habitats, for which Pascal Stucki also works as a specialist in the ecology of springs. “People are very interested in finding the sources,” says Pascal Stucki happily. Thanks to the good local knowledge of the residents, remote springs can also be located.

The Swiss parks are particularly active in recording the sources. In 2016 and 2017, for example, volunteers recorded around 650 springs in the Doubs Nature Park in northwestern Switzerland. Conclusion of the first survey: Three quarters of these springs had disappeared, been destroyed or damaged, the rest is still in a natural or at least near-natural state – a comparatively high proportion. This is because the sources in the Doubs are located in particularly impassable, steep places in the forest.

Springs are threatened as a habitat

“It was only a few years ago that the federal government became aware of the high ecological value of natural sources,” says Stucki. At the same time, the data collected so far shows that this awareness comes far too late, “because the vast majority of sources have now been damaged or even disappeared completely.”

The situation in the Mittelland is particularly precarious, where only just one percent of the springs are in a natural state. 95 percent have been destroyed by agricultural drainage systems and springs for drinking water and cattle troughs. A significant part has also simply dried up, which has to do with the fact that it is raining less and less.

Swiss parks are pioneers

It is now all the more important to precisely record the natural sources that still exist, “because this is the only way we can secure them for the future,” says Pascal Stucki. Here, too, there is hope in the Swiss parks, because a relatively large number of springs have been preserved there and the communities and landowners are more open to protection and revitalization measures.

Stucki regrets that the protection and revitalization of the Swiss springs is progressing only slowly. And this, although many enclosed sources are no longer needed. The water is unnecessarily diverted from the source opening into a pipe. “Owners and communities are very protectionist and they want to keep their sources for bad times”, although this is easily possible even after revitalization, explains Pascal Stucki.

To revitalize it, you only have to remove the socket or close the socket chamber so that the water can overflow. “As soon as the water starts flowing again, it is surprisingly quick for animals and plants to settle and a new spring habitat to emerge”.

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