Can Sheep Wool Help Slow Melting Glaciers? Swiss Scientists Test a Natural Blanket

What if the fluffy coat of a sheep could become a tiny shield for a massive glacier? It sounds like a stretch, but a team of Swiss researchers actually put that idea to the test this summer.

The project, whimsically dubbed “Keep It Wool,” is a collaboration between the environmental non‑profit Summit Foundation and the University of Lausanne. Their battlefield? The Tsanfleuron Glacier in western Switzerland, a slice of ice that, like many Alpine glaciers, has been shrinking faster than anyone would like.

For years, the usual go‑to solution has been synthetic tarpaulins—plastic sheets that reflect sunlight and keep the underlying ice a bit cooler. Those sheets do work, but they come with a baggage of micro‑fibres that eventually drift into the surrounding ecosystem.

Enter sheep’s wool, a material that’s entirely biodegradable, leaves no plastic residue, and—ironically—is often thrown away in Switzerland. About 40‑70 % of the country’s wool never finds a use, according to project manager Timothé Steiner. So why not give it a second life?

In June, the team laid down two prototype wool blankets, supplied by Swiss firm Fisolan, over roughly 200 square metres of glacier surface. The blankets were placed side‑by‑side with conventional synthetic geotextiles, letting the scientists compare the two head‑to‑head throughout the warm months.

Every two weeks, they trekked up the ice, took temperature readings, measured melt rates, and, honestly, scratched their heads a little. The early data was surprisingly upbeat: the wool blankets performed almost as well as the plastic ones at slowing melt, and the thicker wool version even edged out a slight advantage.

Even the makers of the blankets were taken aback. “I didn’t think it would stay put,” admitted Fisolan’s Niklaus Saegesser to Reuters, while master’s student Elliot Gaffiot added, “It worked incredibly well—far better than we expected.”

That said, the scientists are quick to point out the limits. The wool only covers a tiny fraction—about 0.02 %—of Switzerland’s glacier area. It’s not a magic solution that can stop an entire mountain range from disappearing.

What the experiment does prove, though, is that when a protective blanket is already needed—say, around ski resorts or tourist spots—a wool version could replace plastic, cutting down on micro‑plastic pollution without sacrificing performance.

In the grand scheme, the real fix for melting glaciers still lies elsewhere: cutting greenhouse‑gas emissions. Still, it’s oddly comforting to think that a humble sheep’s coat might buy us a few extra minutes of snow on a summer day.