Lorenz Sidler

Occupation: Prospective student taking a gap year

Hobbies: Hiking, skiing, mountain biking, soccer

Favorite tree: Japanese maple and walnut

Favorite forest memory: As a child, I built a treehouse with my godfather in our walnut tree in the garden. I spent countless hours there and under the tree.

Lorenz Sidler completed his alternative service as a group leader with the Bergwaldprojekt. Over the past four and a half months, he has guided school classes and volunteers during work assignments in the forest. He’ll soon be returning for another assignment.

How did you first hear about the Bergwaldprojekt?
A friend of mine volunteered for a few weeks with the Bergwaldprojekt while he was in high school and told me about it. I knew I definitely wanted to do my civil service outdoors in nature. So I looked into it and eventually signed up.

What do you particularly like about your work with the Bergwaldprojekt?

I really enjoy working outdoors and with people. The Bergwaldprojekt combines both perfectly. You guide school groups or volunteers in the forest and work together on various projects. I really appreciate this mix of nature, physical work, and interacting with lots of people.

What tasks do you take on?
As a group leader, you support the project management. With school groups, you often work with a small group of students and guide them as they work in the forest. In adult projects, you sometimes work alongside the other volunteers. In addition, there are organizational tasks such as preparing materials and helping with cooking.

What challenges did you have to overcome in the projects?

At first, I had to learn to find a good balance: The students are often only two or three years younger than me. The key is to earn their respect while still being able to interact with them in a relaxed way. And although it’s really nice to be around so many people, it can also be exhausting over time. That’s why it’s important to take some time for yourself now and then.

Is there a moment that really stands out for you?
Once I had two students who didn’t feel like working at all at the beginning of the week. I spent a lot of time with them throughout the week, and on the last day, in the pouring rain, they suddenly worked with total motivation. At the end, they came up to me and said they’d had a blast. That really touched me.

What did you take away from your time with the Bergwaldprojekt?
I only really came to realize how much work goes into maintaining a healthy protective forest. When you’re just walking through the forest, you don’t see any of that. But it takes an incredible amount of time, people, and care for a protective forest to function properly. So my advice for new civil service volunteers is: be open-minded, ask questions—and when working with school groups, don’t just focus on performance. Often, the most important thing is simply that the children are outside and experiencing the forest.