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Task forces in the activists' tree houses: A mixed forest that is around 130 years old is to be removed
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David Young / dpa
With a large police force, the authorities in Wuppertal enforce the clearing of a forest occupied by activists.
The police said the operation was expected to last longer than the day.
In Wuppertal-Vohwinkel, around 1,500 trees are to be felled to make room for a lime industry dump.
The owner of the forest is a lime-producing company that had fought for the clearing in court.
With barricades and tree houses against the eviction
"An approximately 130-year-old mixed forest should give way so that the limestone mining has a spoil heap," criticized the Greens member of the Bundestag, Kathrin Henneberger.
Activists have erected barricades, tree houses, shacks and platforms to prevent the eviction.
"We want to proceed in a de-escalating manner and first get in touch with the people," said a police spokesman in the morning.
According to Henneberger, a first squatter was roped down and taken into custody at noon, while other activists were still in the tree houses.
There is no official confirmation of this information so far.
According to the H. Oetelshofen lime works, 1,000 to 1,500 trees will have to go for the planned spoil heap.
Kalkwerke manager Till Iseke explained that when limestone is quarried, overburden material is created that has to be removed.
In this case, that's around 4.4 million tons of clay and sand.
A statement from the company said the partial clearing was "inevitable."
The heap will be reforested later.
In the morning, barricades were already cleared away and a path to the squatters was laid, the police reported.
In addition, a start was made to erect a fence around parts of the site.
At noon, the police asked the squatters to leave the forest.
Arian Gaubig, spokesman for Fridays for Future Wuppertal, said that at the beginning of the police action there was a "spooky atmosphere" in the forest.
The Wuppertal group announced that the cutting down of 1,500 trees in favor of an overburden heap was "a scandal in terms of environmental and climate protection".
According to the activists, the Osterholz forest area has been occupied by environmentalists since August 15, 2019.
The police did not provide any information on how many activists are on site.
apr/dpa