Oak and chestnut avenue on Rügen: Trees filter fine dust from the air, provide shade and protect against soil erosion
Photo:Rolfes / McPHOTO / blickwinkel / imago images
The best thing about Poratz is the way to get there. It leads through an avenue of old linden trees, the crowns of which have grown together in places to form a green tunnel. Cows graze behind the rows of trees, poppies grow, grass bends in the wind that sweeps over the Uckermark on this summer's day. Only a few rays of sunlight break through the canopy of leaves.
Landscape planner Jürgen Peters steps on the brakes on his VW bus. The ground consists of cobblestones and roots as thick as arms, over which carriages and ox carts once rumbled. The avenue dates back to the 18th century, when a network of tree-lined paths, streets and roads stretched across Germany. Only a small part of this green glory has remained, because all kinds of avenues had to give way after the Second World War. "There was a tremendous deforestation," complains Peters, who teaches as a professor at the University for Sustainable Development in Eberswalde.
It is estimated that around 50,000 km of avenues have been removed from the map. Among them were narrow paths comparable to the one that leads to Poratz, but also splendid, wide oak and linden avenues that led for many kilometers to the cities.
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