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PERTISAU, Austria: With tender care, Sepp Rieser adorns the voluminous heads of his reluctant cows with flower crowns, adds more spruce twigs, and wraps the large bells around their necks.
“I’ve been doing this since I was a child,” Rieser says of the age-old tradition in which cattle are decorated for their journey from the Alpine pastures of Gramai in Austria’s West Tyrol state, where they graze all summer long, to the valley below where they will spend the harsh winter months.
For Rieser, the festivities surrounding this trip to the village of Pertisau in the Karwendel Mountains are just as important as his birthday or Christmas.
Images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary appear on the ornaments of his flock of 90 people, reflecting the strong Catholic heritage of the region.
But it could soon be a relic of the past: radical economic changes, as well as climate change, are taking their toll on the landscape and threatening the future of the tradition, as well as its bovine stars.
The small-scale farms that dominate Tyrol have become financially unviable, forcing thousands of farmers to seek more reliable sources of income.
As a result, more than 25,000 cows have disappeared in the last decade, and with them the pastures that used to graze, according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture.
The basis of life
In the last two decades, around 1,250 grasses in Tyrol alone have been allowed to return to the wild, a development that is also affecting other regions of the Alps, from southeastern France to Switzerland, as well as parts of Italy, Germany. and Slovenia.
In Tyrol, where hiking in summer and skiing in winter are the mainstays of the economy, the impact is particularly different, Rieser explains as he puts the finishing touches on his cow’s halter, engraved with his name and three Edelweiss flowers.
Taking cows to pastures “is very important, first of all for the health of the cows, their longevity and their health, and of course also to maintain the pasture and the entire landscape,” Rieser tells Agence France-Presse to a altitude of over 1,260 meters (4,130 feet), where his herd spends the summer grazing in fragrant meadows.
Cows and mountain pastures, Rieser says, “are the foundation of our lives.”
Without cows, grasslands can quickly become overgrown with shrubs and forests, altering the landscape and making it impassable, according to Jasmin Duregger, a climate change expert at Greenpeace Austria.
Meanwhile, the slippery tuberose has already started to occupy many grasses, increasing the risk of avalanches, says Duregger.
“When grasses become crowded with shrubs and trees, vital plants are lost, as well as rare herbs and flowers,” he adds.
‘Summers come earlier’
Climate change is only accelerating this effect.
Gottfried Brunner, who has tended Rieser cows for 10 consecutive summers, has noticed these changes.
“Summers come earlier,” he says as the cattle are guided through an iridescent mountain lake.
The average annual temperature between 1981 and 2010 was 6.9 degrees Celsius (44.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in Austria, but since then each year it has been well above that level.
Last year, the figure rose to 8.5 degrees, 1.6 degrees above the previous median.
“That means we have an extended period of vegetation during which more grasses, grasses and shrubs can grow,” which has increased feeding by as much as 20 percent, says Duregger.
“The cows just can’t keep up with the pasture.”
Heavier rainfall and sweltering heat waves are among the changes Rieser has noticed.
“Climate change is something we can see today,” he says sternly.
After treading the steep mountainside for about an hour and a half, the cows finally reach Pertisau, cheered on by hundreds of excited onlookers.
After traveling three hours to join, Karin Polzl smiles as the cows pass by.
For the holidays, Polzl has donned a T-shirt with a printed cow.
“I love these animals,” he says, speaking to AFP about the collection of cow figurines at his home.
“I think it’s very sad that this tradition, the cows and the pastures are at risk,” he says.
Like many here, he hopes they last beyond his display case.
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