Views of a foreign resident

Corporate responsibility and Swiss idiosyncrasy embodied in a forest jogging trail

Yes, corporate responsibility and Swiss idiosyncrasy embodied in a forest jogging trail.

A private company is involved in this story, but this is not promoted content. I’m writing this article out of genuine interest to showcase a long-standing action of this company, that reflects social responsibility and values that need to be applauded and reproduced all over the globe. I won’t give the name of the company but if you live in Switzerland you will recognize it immediately.

Together with hundreds of towns spread all over Switzerland, this company builds and maintains running trails all around the country. These trails are most often embedded inside forests, and they consist not only of jogging routes but also of regularly spaced exercising points. These trails are not just for the company to show off, but actually truly useful trails that large numbers of people use every day.

Right now there are exactly 499 of these running trails, which means roughly 1 trail every 80 km² of country area (actually, the practical density is even higher if we consider that a large area of the country is low-populated due to the mountains). I have visited, sometimes exercised in, many of these trails for years, and I have always found them extremely well maintained. So it’s not a do-once-to-show-off-then-forget.

In this story, I share with you some snapshots I took in a jogging trail built in collaboration between this company and the town of Bussigny, right inside a forest along the Venoge river, west of Lausanne. Interspersed with the photos I comment on the values that these trails represent, stressing how an expat adopted by the country sees Swiss idiosyncrasy embodied in these kinds of developments. The story is split in three sections titled “The trail(s)”, “Jogging in the wild”, and “Education on nature, the role of forests and how to maintain them”, plus an ending “Conclusion to make you think”.

The trail(s)

As I just said this particular trail is embedded in a forest. Right where the trail begins and ends (it is circular) you have two posts: one describing the forest, how it is maintained, and why it needs to be maintained; and another with details of the exercising trail itself.

Notice that the post about the jogging trail is written in the 3 main official languages of the country, French, Italian, and German (the fourth is Romansh, but all Romansh speakers I’ve met also speak one of the 3 other national languages). In the three languages, you have clear instructions, polite requests, and of course respectful acknowledgments. Although this is a french-speaking region, it is not at all uncommon to come across German speakers all around. Italian speakers are less common here, and the Italian language is probably better represented by Italian immigrants rather than native Italian-speaking Swiss.

Right where these two posts are, two trails begin and one passes by. Of the two trails that begin here, one is the circular trail subject of this story, and the other is a circular educational trail about the plants and birds of this forest. The third trail in question is the Via Francigena that I presented in these recent stories:

I parked my bike and I slowly started jogging the trail. Within less than 100 m, it splits apart from the other two trails:

Notice dear reader how the trails are fully covered with a thick layer of wood pellets. This makes the run very soft for your knees. And you may think it wears off quickly as it gets composted. Of course this does happen; however, it is compensated by very frequent reconditioning and addition of new pellet, and so in practice, most trails remain soft most of the time.

This jogging trail is 2.8 km long. Every couple hundred meters you find exercise spots like this one, where posts explain what exercises you are to do -if you wish:

Some other exercise spots of this trail:

Jogging in the wild

Like most of the trails built and maintained by this company in association with local governments, this one is embedded in a forest. So you get these kinds of views as you run:

As you see this forest is quite dense. Here are some shots of the wild environments you find:

Some plants even grow onto others:

Education on nature, the role of forests, and how to maintain them

As I introduced, this trail overlaps partly with an educational trail that describes the different species of plants and birds you can find in this forest:

Europe’s forests were quite devastated especially between the middle ages and the XIX century. In the last decades, there have been serious efforts to recover native species and slowly expand the realm of forests, at least in Switzerland. Importantly, wood (which is still very widely used for heating in this country!) is obtained from local forests but in carefully controlled procedures that are framed within a regulated system of tree cutting, tree planting, and natural resource management.

Education of the younger generations is key, and what better way to achieve it than engaging them directly with the forests. Most forests I’ve seen here have dedicated sections of expansion, where kids and families come together to plant trees. After each “plantathons” a plaque is placed with the names of the kids who participated in it. This one is from year 2014 in the forest where this story takes place:

These plantations are usually in the perimeter of the forest, as they attempt to extend them. Here’s what a section of the 2014 plantation looks like:

As you see the trees are protected. And if you look inside…

In concluding, dear reader, I set you to think

I hope you’ve enjoyed this story, and that it set you to think about how forests, native species, etc. are managed around your region, in your country, and worldwide. Are the local flora and fauna of your region abundant, or have they been taken over by foreign species? Do you have forests close to your house? Is visiting a forest or other kind of natural space a quotidian activity, or only the subject of a special day out? Are the companies around you engaged in promoting well-being, preserving nature, and communicating its value to future generations? What can you do to improve all these?

In greeting you, I leave you with three more photos: