G7 madness: Trees must give way for helipad - they were first planted
Created: 04/21/2022, 17:39
By: Jennifer Battaglia, Bernhard Jepsen
At the end of March, the trees for the temporary helipad near Schloss Elmau had to give way.
The trees had only been planted after the last summit.
© Peter Kornatz
The preparations for the G7 summit are complex and strange at the same time: trees have to be removed for a temporary helipad.
They had only been planted after the last summit.
Elmau/ Obersöchering - From June 26th to 28th, the absolute state of emergency will return to the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Because then the G7 summit will take place there for the second time.
After 2015, the heads of state and government of important industrial nations are meeting again at the 5-star hotel in Schloss Elmau.
These include Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Canada and the USA.
G7 summit in Schloss Elmau: More than 150 million euros in costs for security
In order for Olaf Scholz to be able to talk to Joe Biden or Boris Johnson in peace, a lot has to be organized in advance.
The security precautions for the meeting, which lasts less than 72 hours, are enormous — and cost a lot of money.
According to estimates by the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, the use of police and security forces to organize the G7 summit will amount to over 150 million euros.
In 2015 it was "only" 135 million.
A container village is currently being built in the Garmisch ski jumping arena, in which the police and judiciary are to be housed.
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And further conversions are necessary for the summit, such as the hiking car park near Schloss Elmau.
This will again be converted into a helipad.
In concrete terms, this means that the floor will be temporarily asphalted, as in 2015, i.e. completely sealed.
The trees there therefore had to give way at the end of March.
They had only been planted after the last summit.
An asphalt desert: The heliport should look like it did in the summer of 2015.
The trees there had to give way.
© Thomas Very
G7 summit in Schloss Elmau: trees must be transplanted
As Marika Hoyer from the state building authority in Weilheim reported when asked by
Merkur.de
, a third of the trees on and around the hiking car park were felled.
The building authority was able to save 40 more on its own initiative.
"We transplanted the trees," says Hoyer.
The Opitz company helped with this.
The trees were lifted out of the ground with a round spade machine — professionally, including the roots, of course.
A truck finally carted the sycamore, elm, beech and alder trees to the neighboring district of Weilheim-Schongau.
There they have found a new home in the Obersöchering municipal area.
The trees have found a new home in Obersöchering — and will remain there beyond the G7 summit.
© Bernhard Jepsen
Obersöchering's mayor is enthusiastic: "After the request from the state building authority, we immediately shouted 'here'," reports Reinald Huber.
In the municipality of Obersöchering, several large trees fell victim to the recent storm weather events.
The replanting campaign came at just the right time: "I'm a friend of trees," emphasizes the mayor.
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G7 summit in Schloss Elmau: hiking car park will be restored - with new trees
The trees will therefore remain in the Weilheim-Schongau district permanently and will not be moved back to Elmau as soon as all the hustle and bustle is over.
However, the hiking car park there is to be restored: after the asphalt has been removed, the ground will be planted again.
With new trees.
When asked, Marika Hoyer did not want to reveal whether the building authority is already fearing the next potential summit in Elmau.
Perhaps Obersöchering's mayor would be happy about further offshoots.
The community does not incur any costs for the planting campaign, including three years of development care.
The cost is borne by the federal government.
(jb/yep)
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