The idea of ​​founding the VSO (Valle Stura Outdoor) was born from the need to merge different needs: many of the founding members were scouts, active participants in sports associations, environmentalists and in any case all united by a united and shared vision of business that knows how to combine the protection of the environment and the promotion of the territory. This operation, easy to summarize, is very complex to do. The list of problems to be addressed is vast and varied: it starts from the macro themes of climate change to the clash of mentality between the determined (and stubborn) population that lives in the mountains (shepherds, farmers, breeders) and those who visit the mountain in their free time (city people, more or less expert hikers). Amid these two worlds, the delicate themes of environmental pollution, fine particles, the exploitation of water resources, the problem of hydrogeological instability combine. By way of example, the fine particles that are found in the cities have led to the controversial regional law 15/2018 which prohibits the burning of plant residues; the increasingly important needs of water in the plains lead to the design of hydraulic works on mountain areas; the (fortunately) growing environmental sensitivity in the general population has led to support initiatives such as the repopulation of the wolf in our valleys, not always well accepted by mountain farmers. We don’t believe in simple solutions to complex problems; least of all we take on the role of judges who can attribute reason to one side or the other; much more humbly we think that helping those who want to enjoy the mountains, to do it consciously,  can help to understand the needs, the difficulties and also the importance of the people who live in the mountains. Likewise, a more controlled, mediated and accompanied tourism can make mountain populations understand that a sustainable development of their territory is possible and that “the furestè” (the foreigners, people from out of town) are not arrogant people who come to park their SUV on the lawn that is painstakingly kept clean, but they can be customers who buy the Margaro cheese, opinion leaders who, once known and appreciated the work of cleaning the woods, maintaining the riverbeds, controlling the territory, consciously support the cause of those who live in the mountains.

For these reasons, at the VSO, without the ambition to take on the role of judges or teachers, we would simply like to set a good example: we like to imagine that those who come to find us will appreciate the non-use of plastic anywhere in the basis, the reuse of any material or object that has previously been used for another purpose, the promotion of all the activities that are present in the valley and above all a climate of serenity that stimulates a feeling of possible coexistence between apparently different worlds, but whose which fate is, in our view, intrinsically linked to one another.

The VSO staff