Frustration in Kriens LU
Farmers block popular hiking trails on their own
Farmers have blocked a hiking trail in Kriens LU that leads to the Sonnenberg on their own. The wet weather had become a problem. But the blockade didn’t last long.
Published: 13 minutes ago
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Corpus delicti: The quarrel broke out about this yellow hiking trail through the yard of farmer Lucia Bühlmann.
A hiking trail leads from Kriens LU to Lucerne’s local mountain, the Sonnenberg. On the outskirts of Kriens, the route leads through a farm, an unpaved natural path between fields up the slope until you come across paved ground again a little later.
But this piece of nature trail was closed until Wednesday morning, as reported by the “Bote der Urschweiz”. A red and white striped barrier tape and a self-made sign had been installed on both sides. It turned out that farmers were blocking the path, through whose fields the path section leads.
“We installed the sign and the barrier tape for two reasons,” says farmer Lucia Bühlmann to Blick. On the one hand, it is about the safety of the hikers: “The path is steep and difficult to walk on in bad weather. We don’t want people to hurt themselves,” says the farmer. “On the other hand, people turn to our fields when the path is muddy and slippery.”
Difficult interface between town and country
But the ban was illegal. The affected section is a statutory hiking trail. This means that only authorities are allowed to close and open it.
The city of Kriens then contacted the farmers. “We asked them to remove the lock,” says Maurus Frey, city councilor and responsible for the building and environment department, to Blick. Bühlmann can confirm that the lock has since been removed.
“This is an exemplary problem at the interface between town and country,” Frey continues. “We will continue to be in contact with farmers to find a solution to their loss of cultivated land.”