Trift Glacier Foreland

The Trift glacier foreland in the Swiss canton of Bern comprises a wide variety of geomorphological forms and habitats for pioneers and plant communities.

At the southern end of Lake Trift, a delta is emerging and an alpine alluvial plain represents a biologically valuable area for a variety of species, some of which are rare and endangered.

[1] According to Mary Leibundgut, who surveyed the area in 2022 using the method developed by the Federal Office for the Environment for the inventory of alluvial zones and updated in 2021, the glacier left behind a variety of different landscape forms.

Outwash plaines, old courses, ponds, river delta, lake and the active, inactive and relict glaciofluvial areas document the dynamics of the Triftwasser and its tributaries.

In addition to the primary gneisses, a narrow band of volcanic rocks outcrop is also exposed in the area of the SAC hut Trift.

The dominant landscape element is the striking terrain line that runs from south-west to north-east from the Furtwangsattel over the rocky ridge of Windegg and Drosiegg towards the Steilimmi.

It acts like a natural dam, behind which the ice of the Trift glacier has carved out an overdeepened basin and which is cut through by the Triftwasser in a narrow canyon.

Today, the Triftwasser plunges over the rock step in a 150 m high waterfall, only to disappear into a deep channel and emerge again 200 m further east, flowing down in a series of cascades to the alluvial plain on the southern shore of the lake Trift.

In the lower area of the glacier forefield, the alpine pastures and mixed grasslands, which are grazed by sheep, are partly degenerated and species-poor.

Water beetles, bugs, caddisflies, stoneflies, mayflies and dragonflies live in the alpine alluvial plain of the glacier forefield of the Trift.

[6] KWO involved environmental protection organisations in its planning at an early stage, as the reservoir would flood large areas of valuable habitats.

In the end, Swiss Alpine Club, World Wide Fund for Nature, Pro Natura and the Bernese Fishing Association approved the Trift reservoir project.

In the alpine alluvial plain and on the delta on the southern shore of Lake Trift, Alpine willowherb ( Epilobium fleischeri ) and yellow mountain saxifrage ( Saxifraga anizoides ), typical pioneer plants of alluvions and moraines, have colonised the area.
The retreat of the Trift Glacier since 1864
The Trift river cascades down from the glacier tongue over the rock step to the natural Trift lake.
Protest action against the construction of a dam in the glacier forefield of the Trift Glacier, summer 2019