It is news that comes too late for Miesbach: The EU Commission is considering changes in the control of the Asian longhorned beetle.
Even the strict obligation to make payments could be relaxed - which would be in line with two petitions from Miesbach.
Miesbach – Karl Brutscher has no reservations when it comes to contacting higher-level authorities.
On the contrary: the 79-year-old ex-SPD city councilor from Miesbach has written countless contradictions and petitions - among other things against the surface consumption at the expense of the protected Egarten landscape in the district.
In the case of the Asian long-horned beetle (ALB), which was first discovered in 2019 at the tax office in Miesbach, which resulted in the removal of around 5,000 trees and shrubs within a radius of 100 meters around the discovery sites - the felling zone - a petition was the means of the election - this time at the European Parliament.
And this time she could definitely be successful, as Brutscher reports.
If only afterwards, because the fellings in Miesbach have already taken place.
Against prophylactic felling
Just like Karin Bracher, who as a resident had also actively resisted the felling of the hall forest on the Harzberg with its 150-year-old red beeches, Brutscher wrote a petition.
Both are processed together due to the same reference at EU level.
In it, both reject the precautionary felling of the potentially eligible host plants of the globally feared deciduous tree pest in the felling zone as a means of control.
Climate protection argument
In his letter, Brutscher refers, among other things, to the strictly stipulated climate goals of the European Union and argues that trees are indispensable for binding CO2 on the one hand, but in the case of ALB control there are simply so many healthy, decades-old specimens be sacrificed just to prevent the beetle from living on suspicion as a precautionary measure.
The responsible State Institute for Agriculture (LfL) in Freising only allowed the exception to apply to Waitzinger Park, but not to the Hallenwald am Harzberg, which also deserves protection.
Also read:
This is how the hall forest on the Harzberg in Miesbach has changed due to the ALB fellings
Brutscher does not accept the official justification that too many exceptions would dilute the control measures.
"This procedure is not only disproportionate, but also violates the ban on arbitrary actions," he states, referring to only 97 infested trees, while a total of around 5,000 trees and shrubs were removed out of sheer caution.
Argument Big Five
Bracher also questions this approach and refers to the alternative control strategy of the so-called Big Five, which the lower nature conservation authority at the district office would have endorsed.
Accordingly, only maple, birch, horse chestnut, poplar and willow are primarily affected and can be removed.
The other eleven specified tree species, on which the EU implementing regulation is based, are not the norm.
Therefore, extensive crown monitoring in the felling zone is preferable to felling.
This would also have saved the beech trees on the Harzberg.
But in April 2020 they were felled.
Implementing decision is revised
But maybe other municipalities will benefit from the critical questioning in Miesbach.
In any case, a reply from Brussels to the petitioners states that the EU Commission is planning to investigate the matter with the responsible German authority.
It should be checked whether the provisions of the implementing decision have been properly implemented.
They also wanted to deal professionally with the arguments put forward.
Because the implementing decision (EU) 2015/893 is currently being revised.
If necessary, it should be replaced by an implementing regulation.
The procedure is ongoing.
However, it will still take some time before the final result is achieved.
ddy
