Ash tree manipulated before felling: City confirms interference with the trunk
Created: 01/17/2022, 08:54
By: Charlotte Borst
Impact on the quality of life: it was still there in mid-December, but the stately ash tree has since been cut down.
© Gerald Fortsch
An owner felled an ash tree in his garden.
He had permission to do this because the tree was no longer stable.
But someone must have taken care of that.
Unterschleißheim
– In Lohhof, the felling of a 20 meter high ash tree made local residents sad and angry.
A woman from Lohhof complained that it was a major blow to the neighborhood and the quality of life.
The owner had received a felling permit because the ash tree in his garden had died and was no longer stable.
However, someone had obviously hit the tree hard beforehand.
According to an eyewitness, a wide strip of bark had been removed in a ring around the lower trunk.
Ivy "mercifully" overgrew the outrage on the tree, she says.
She didn't know the term "Ringeln" until then.
The owner of the felled ash is known to the editors, but he left inquiries unanswered.
City: "Previous manipulative interventions"
However, a spokesman for the city confirms: "On the trunk of the ash tree, the city administration found clear, earlier manipulative interventions in the bark area, which could have been the reason for causing a considerable weakening of the ash tree." However, it was not possible for the responsible field service employee, " to blame the damage on a specific polluter".
The ash is actually under special protection in the city, as well as oak, linden, maple and other trees.
The Tree Protection Ordinance prohibits these protected trees from being destroyed or removed without permission from the administration.
The circumstances under which trees may be removed are precisely regulated.
One reason for a felling permit is if trees are dead, unstable or have an unreasonable impact on a building, but this must be proven.
"A Farce"
According to the city administration, the ash had a difficult time and “no perspective” between asphalt, gravel, an underground car park and a new building on the neighboring property. It is not their job to assess the causes of a die-off. The felling permit was linked to conditions for replacement planting or a replacement payment.
Birgit Annecke-Patsch, chairwoman of the Bund Nature Conservation Group in Schleissheim, calls the manipulation of the trunk "treacherous".
In Unterschleißheim, she sees a tendency to take tree protection seriously, "but people keep trying tricks." Conditions for replanting are often "a farce": "Control is handled very casually because staff is scarce." Nevertheless, she is a supporter of the tree protection ordinance, which is controversial in many places: "We need every tree, even in a densely populated city," she emphasizes, "of course, the old trees are valuable." She hopes that a lot of information will continue to be used to convince people of how important the trees are for the urban climate.
More news from Unterschleißheim and the district of Munich can be found here.