Treiten
Treiten () is a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History Treiten is first mentioned in 1221 as Treiton. The five hills around the village were the site of a number of Mesolithic camps. A number of Neolithic and Bronze Age items have been discovered at Buchholz, Ryfflirain-Riederen and Kanalmühle. Fragments of Roman era bricks were found in the Grammetwald. The village was originally part of the Herrschaft of Erlach. In 1474 the entire Herrschaft was acquired by Bern. Under Bernese rule, Treiten was part of the Ins court in the Erlach district. In 1852 the political municipality and the Bürgergemeinde of Treiten merged into a single body. The agricultural village grew up along the Ins-Aarberg road. In 1647 the Aarberg canal was dug through the village. Almost ten years later, in 1656, a mill was built on the canal. The Jura water correction project of 1874-83 drained the marshy Grosses Moos and Treiten was assigned of the newly arable land. Between 1945 and 1972 several plans were developed to build the Grosses Moos Intercontinental Airport in the municipalities of Treiten and Finsterhennen. The project was eventually abandoned and the area of the proposed airport reverted to farm land. Geography Treiten has an area of . Of this area, or 72.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 17.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 8.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.3% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.4% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.9%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.5% of the area Out of the forested land, 16.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 69.7% is used for growing crops and 2.5% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located at the foot of a moraine that crosses the Grosses Moos marsh. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Erlach, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Seeland. Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent a bend sinister wavy Azure and overall a Tau Cross couped Sable issuant from a Mount of 3 Coupeaux Vert. The Tau cross on the coat of arms is also a "T" which represents the village's name. Demographics Treiten has a population () of . , 5.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000-2010) the population has changed at a rate of 5%. Migration accounted for 9%, while births and deaths accounted for -2.3%. Most of the population () speaks German (377 or 95.4%) as their first language, French is the second most common (8 or 2.0%) and Albanian is the third (5