The next image from the Spits­ber­gen calen­dar 2018 is the month Novem­ber. It shows a small group of Spits­ber­gen reinde­er. The­se shed their ant­lers once every year. The exact time is dif­fe­rent for males and fema­les. It also varies indi­vi­du­al­ly, to some degree.

This small herd of reinde­er shows all varia­ti­ons in their ant­lers: one does not have ant­lers at all, one dones only have one half and the third one has got the full set of ant­lers!

The pho­to shows reinde­er in a win­ter envi­ron­ment at Dia­ba­sod­den in Sas­senfjord. In the ear­ly win­ter, reinde­er have got their fat reser­ves, next to the meag­re vege­ta­ti­on that is most­ly hid­den under snow. Later, when the fat reser­ves are used up and the tun­dra is still under snow and ice, the risk from star­va­ti­on will increase stron­gly.

Spits­ber­gen-Calen­dar 2018: Novem­ber. A group of Spits­ber­gen-reinde­er with dif­fe­rent varia­ti­ons of their ant­lers.

The ceme­tery of Lon­gye­ar­by­en has been in a calm part of the val­ley Lon­gye­ard­a­len for about a cen­tu­ry, bet­ween the church and Huset, the old town mee­ting place. It is still an acti­ve ceme­tery, the last buri­als were in 2013 and the­re may be more in the future. Only urn buri­als are allo­wed, howe­ver.

The loca­ti­on of the ceme­tery is calm, but may­be not calm enough in the long term. The steep moun­tain slo­pes near­by have pro­du­ced ava­lan­ches in recent years, most­ly lands­lips after peri­ods of rain, which have rea­ched the ter­rain around the ceme­tery. In the last sum­mer, even the road bet­ween the church and Huset was clo­sed for pro­lon­ged peri­ods. It is pro­ba­b­ly only a ques­ti­on of time until the ceme­tery its­elf is hit and bad­ly dama­ged.

This is a sce­na­rio which Lon­gye­ar­by­en church with priest Leif Magne Hel­ge­sen are not wil­ling to accept. Hel­ge­sen has taken initia­ti­ve and star­ted a deba­te which may lead to a relo­ca­ti­on of the ceme­tery. It is a place of peace and digni­ty, for which many peo­p­le have strong fee­lings, accor­ding to Hel­ge­sen. He reasons that it would accor­din­gly be irre­spon­si­ble to lea­ve the ceme­tery in a place whe­re it may suf­fer bad dama­ge.

First mee­tings with aut­ho­ri­ties like the Sys­sel­man­nen, who is respon­si­ble for monu­ment con­ser­va­ti­on, and the local admin­stra­ti­on have taken place. Aut­ho­ri­ties in Lon­gye­ar­by­en have expe­ri­ence with moving and secu­ring gra­ves from his­to­ri­cal gra­ves that are threa­ten­ed by coas­tal ero­si­on. Moving a who­le ceme­tery would, howe­ver, be a pro­ject of an enti­re­ly dif­fe­rent sca­le. Also rela­ti­ves will have to be invol­ved.

A new loca­ti­on would natu­ral­ly be near the church, which is a quiet part of Lon­gye­ar­by­en and has are­as that are not at risk from ava­lan­ches and lands­li­des.

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten