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Shock after clear-cutting: "Crying residents on the phone" stunned by the city's clearing action

2022-01-16T16:53:43.078Z


Shock after clear-cutting: "Crying residents on the phone" stunned by the city's clearing action Created: 01/16/2022, 05:48 p.m By: Caroline Woermann A swath of devastation on Gotthardstrasse: Hundreds of trees have just been felled here between Fischer-von-Erlachstrasse and Willibaldstrasse. © ACHIM FRANK SCHMIDT The great deforestation for the extension of the U5 to Pasing has begun: on the


Shock after clear-cutting: "Crying residents on the phone" stunned by the city's clearing action

Created: 01/16/2022, 05:48 p.m

By: Caroline Woermann

A swath of devastation on Gotthardstrasse: Hundreds of trees have just been felled here between Fischer-von-Erlachstrasse and Willibaldstrasse.

© ACHIM FRANK SCHMIDT

The great deforestation for the extension of the U5 to Pasing has begun: on the Gotthardstraße in Laim, there is a great outcry over hundreds of felled trees.

And while politicians of all stripes say deforestation is "inevitable," conservationists go on to say there was an alternative.

It looks "simply scary" on Gotthardstrasse in Laim, says Martin Hänsel.

The deputy head of the Munich district group of the Bund Naturschutz (BN) cycled past on Friday.

Shortly before, several hundred trees had been cut down between Fischer-von-Erlachstrasse and Willibaldstrasse.

Hänsel reports of "crying residents on the phone" who cannot believe what happened on their doorstep.

Munich: shock after clear-cutting on Gotthardtstrasse

The trees on Gotthardstrasse in Laim “spoke” until shortly before her death: conservationists from the Landscape Park West citizens’ initiative and the BN had asked for messages to be attached to the trunks.

"First the tree dies, then the person," it said.

Now they have fallen.

The clear-cut includes at least 384 trees with a trunk circumference of more than 80 centimeters.

Others even speak of 530 trees.

The cleared trees form a huge pile.

© ACHIM FRANK SCHMIDT

In the coming days, felling will continue east of the Gotthardstrasse over a total of 1.2 kilometers to Von-der-Pfordten-Strasse.

And they show a dilemma that can be observed more and more often in Munich: Hundreds of trees are felled for the traffic turnaround, i.e. more climate-friendly mobility for people.

The construction site for the extension of the U5 from Laimer Platz in the direction of Pasing will soon be set up here in Laim.

Politicians of all persuasions regard the expansion of the route as an indispensable component of the traffic turnaround.

The city council approved 988 million euros for the subway project in November 2021.

And the cutting down of the trees, most of which are more than 40 years old.

Munich: Green city councilor also calls clearing "unavoidable"

Even Green City Councilor Paul Bickelbacher regretted the clear-cutting, but described it as "unavoidable". Because: According to the building department, the construction site cannot be set up underground as a tunnel construction site. The reason: the stop at Laimer Platz is only five to six meters below ground - not enough space for mining. That is why work has to be done in the open, that is, the road has to be dug up - and the car traffic then flows in one lane. A subway siding will also be built between Laimer Platz and the next stop on Willibaldstrasse. Only west of Willibaldstraße, under the allotment garden there, should work continue underground and thus protect the trees.

Also in the further course of the Gotthardstraße in the direction of Laimer Platz, trees are still being cut down.

© SIGI JANTZ

Munich: Traffic turnaround versus tree and climate protection

Martin Hänsel believes that most of the trees could still have been saved.

"In our opinion, mining would have been possible for the most part if the subway sidings had been relocated under the SV Laim sports facility," he says.

The administration did not comply with the BN's request to check this.

"The planning does not meet the requirements of climate change," says Hänsel.

Traffic turnaround versus tree and climate protection: "It often happens that one important argument is played off against the other".

You can often reconcile both “with a little extra effort”.

It is now too late for that on the Gotthardstrasse.

The section should be covered again in mid-2026.

Almost all of the felled trees will then be replanted.

No consolation for Hänsel: It will take “half a human lifetime” for the new trees to assume the functions of full-grown street trees – as shade providers, as CO2 stores, as green lungs.

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Source: merkur

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