Trees and bushes fulfill important functions along roads: Among other things, they serve as privacy, glare and wind protection.
They also provide a habitat for mammals, birds and insects.
Without regular care, the trees could become a source of danger: sick and old trees lose their stability and could endanger motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. Branches that protrude into the traffic area could damage vehicles. A clear view in curves and along the route must also be guaranteed. Likewise, signs, delineator posts, traffic lights and crossings must not be covered by plants.
That is why the Freising State Building Authority will start taking care of the trees in October. The tree care season runs until the end of February. “Road safety is a decisive criterion for us. Our goal is to interfere with our woody stock as little as possible and as much as necessary, ”explains Hans Jörg Oelschlegel, Head of Road Construction at the Freising State Building Authority. "Maintenance measures on trees and bushes serve to preserve them in the long term." The maintenance of the trees is carried out by the employees of the Dachau road maintenance depot or contracted companies.
A small part of the wood remains in place, where it provides a new habitat for mushrooms, plants, insects and birds as dead wood or piled up in piles of brushwood.
The much larger part of the wood is removed so that the stands can rejuvenate themselves and root stocks sprout again.
Cuttings are recycled and used for energy, for example as chopped biomass.
In some cases, roads have to be closed for the work or provided with extensive safety measures.
Sometimes work is carried out in difficult terrain, which necessitates the use of complex safety technology and cost-intensive machines.
In order to use equipment and personnel as economically as possible, the respective sections of the route are first cut or felled.
The term wood care may sound strange in some places, but wood sections that have been “put on the cane”, i.e. shrubs cut back to about ten to twenty centimeters above the ground, initially look very bare.
However, this method helps nature rejuvenate and reposition itself.
A relatively short time later, the plants develop new shoots again.
For road users and residents, experience has shown that the woodworking season is associated with a number of questions: Why are shrubs cut back so much?
What happens to the resulting wood?
Do shrubs offer protection from noise?
The Freising State Building Authority provides answers to these and many other questions as well as current information on the Internet at www.stbafs.bayern.de.