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The bark beetle is the most dangerous pest in the domestic forestry industry. Due to climate change, it is spreading ever faster and causing great damage. A trained nose should help!
Climate change is causing milder temperatures, longer periods of drought and more frequent extreme weather events. As a result, trees are being weakened. The beneficiary is the highly problematic pest bark beetle, which is spreading rapidly and can cause entire areas of forest to die. This situation requires intensive bark beetle monitoring, which places a heavy burden on the capacity of forestry operations. In order to preserve the protective forests, Antonin Hugentobler, district forester of Scuol, took the initiative and came up with an original tool: a dog's sniffer nose.
Based on scientific studies and practical experience, Antonin Hugentobler believes in the delicate nose of four-legged friends. He and Marie-Sarah Beuchat, dog trainer of a species detection dog team, have developed a training program together. The basic training lasts between three and six months. Zino, a forest dog, is the first "sniffer of the canton of Graubünden" in training. He works with pheromones. Insects use these scents to communicate with each other. Zino learns to signal to his master as soon as he detects these scents. The dog's talent and the handler's experience are key. The use of sniffer dogs can improve the situation for the mountain forest, as the dog detects the beetle infestation much earlier than is possible with previous detection methods. All hopes are now pinned on Zino!
In April 2024, we started working with the two district foresters Antonin Hugentobler (Scuol Forestry Office) and Mario Lucchinetti (Bregaglia Forestry Office). Their idea of developing a training program for bark beetle detection dogs convinced us right from the start.
Under the expert guidance of Marie-Sarah Beuchat, trainer at Artenspürhunde Schweiz, the project was driven forward with great commitment - and has achieved amazing things within a year.
Today, one year later, the initiators can point to their first successes: They have founded the "Bark Beetle Detection Dogs Graubünden" association based in Scuol, gained several dog handlers for the association and recruited new dogs for training. The team currently comprises six dog handlers and six dogs that are currently undergoing training.
On March 26, 2024, we were able to take part in the bark beetle detection dog meeting. During a live demonstration, we were able to experience at first hand how the dogs specifically search for beetle infestation - and find what they are looking for. Behind these successes is a lot of patience, perseverance and extensive training.
The performance and perseverance of the association have fully convinced us as the Pignaverde Foundation. Their commitment embodies the basic idea of our foundation - the protection and promotion of the protection forest. As a token of our appreciation, we symbolically presented the association with a donation cheque for CHF 9,000.00 at the meeting.
And it continues: the Pignaverde Foundation will continue to support the association in a follow-up project, "Detection Dogs 2". Because one thing is clear - early detection means effective protection. It's great that it works!
