The Schiller-Holz on the outskirts of Taufkirchen was the habitat for many animals.
Now the grove has been cleared for reasons of road safety.
The residents are appalled.
Taufkirchen
- One of the few natural oases with old trees has disappeared forever.
Around 50 well over 100-year-old ash and oak trees in Schiller-Holz on the outskirts of Taufkirchen in the direction of Landshut were felled - for reasons of traffic safety.
“The ash trees are sick, some of the roots have already died.
The branches and shoots die off at the top,” says Korbinian Empl Sr., board member of the brewery cooperative, which owns the approximately 2,600 square meter forest area.
These trees look good on the outside, but have rotten roots and would eventually fall over, according to Empl.
Residents of the nearby settlement and also the neighbors of the Schiller estate are shocked by the clear cut that Empl, a farmer and forester, carried out with his son Korbinian Jr., a professional tree feller, and two friends. Opinions differ as to whether the oak trees had to be cut down at the same time. "We didn't want to get rid of them," emphasizes Empl sen. One of the ash trees fell over a few weeks ago. The area will be reforested in the spring, mainly maples, oaks and maybe a few beeches.
The owner was asked by the state building authority to have the trees checked for road safety obligations, confirms Georg Schmittner, head of the town hall. The inspection took place on site together with forester Stefan Klutschewski from the Isen forest office. He marked the trees that posed a danger, after which they were felled, he reports. With Simon Schmatolla from the forest owners' association, he advised during an inspection to remove two dozen of the trees that were no longer stable due to age and progressive rot and threatened to fall onto the adjacent federal and municipal roads and houses.
"Everything that goes beyond that is the responsibility of the forest owner," says the forester.
The mature trees are not protected and it is not a park.
The owner is obliged to ensure traffic safety and is liable if someone is injured.
According to Empl, it is not true that it was cut down for economic reasons because the brewery needed money, as was rumored.
Ash wood is not worth much right now.
“All we have is the work and the hassle.
Financially it doesn't do much." Most of it is processed into firewood and brings 40 to 60 euros per cubic meter.
It would be about 100 cubic, he estimates.
Resident Hubert Schiller was really annoyed.
“The Hoizl existed in this form long before us.
It shaped the landscape and the townscape,” he says.
"I grew up here and was more than dismayed that everything was gone in one fell swoop." From an ecological point of view, more even removal would have been preferable to clear-cutting, says Schiller.
“I didn't get the impression that oak trees in particular were sick or damaged.
But I'm not an expert," says the biology teacher.
It is extremely strange that nature conservation aspects apparently played no role at all.
Old deciduous stands, even very small ones, are rare.
Actually, you have to actively campaign for their preservation, apparently a conflict of interest with official security arguments.
Now the local area is again "poorer by a small island of biodiversity", complains Schiller. Even his 76-year-old father Hans does not understand why almost all the trees had to go. "It hurts me very, very much. When you're as close to nature as I am, it's always a shame.” He wonders why nature conservation authorities didn't intervene. Green and great spotted woodpeckers, finches, tits and starlings, even owls, owls, squirrels, hedgehogs and deer would have lived in this oasis.
Brigitte Murla, chairwoman of the district association for horticulture and landscape conservation, also regrets such actions.
But dead ash trees would often fall over without warning.
Older oaks produce a lot of deadwood that is thrown off in an uncontrolled manner, which can be dangerous.
Crown pruning could be used to remove deadwood, but this is time-consuming and expensive.
"Of course you could do it differently, felling piece by piece, but it's more rational to cut everything at once," says Murla.
Did the oak trees have to fall too?
forest owner for
risks liable
crown cut
too expensive
