The "Trees of the Year" from 1989 to 2022 now adorn a dirt road in Berglern

Created: 12/17/2022, 12:00 p.m

By: Klaus Kuhn

Also nice to look at in winter: the annual tree avenue gives the community a unique position in the area.

© Klaus Kuhn

The "annual tree avenue" in Berglern is finished.

At the municipal council meeting, Mayor Anton Scherer announced that the project had been completed – at least as far as the planting work was concerned.

Berglern

- It is the dirt road from Eittinger Straße to Semptstraße, along which all the "Trees of the Year" are now - from 1989 to this year, such as European elm (2019), small-leaved lime (2016), wild cherry (2010), horse chestnut (2005), silver birch (2000), Norway maple (1995) and English oak (1989).

The people with the green fingers from the building yard will soon be able to move in again, because the tree of the year 2023 has already been decided: it is the downy birch (Betula pubeszens), which Dr.

Silvius Wodarz Foundation.

None other than Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir has agreed to take over the patronage.

"Let's protect and preserve the downy birch and its habitat together," he said.

His predecessor is Georg Schirmbeck, President of the Forestry Council.

At the handover, he called for “bringing the message of the foundation into the country by planting trees.”

The German Tree Queen Johanna Werk finds it exciting that with the election of the tree of the year, the biotopes in which it occurs "are brought into the public eye".

Both, tree planting and public relations, take place in Berglern.

This goes back to an initiative by Deputy Mayor Otmar Lerch, who "read it somewhere".

But he also had another motivation: “In the past few years, we have had 40 trees removed, some of them large.

So I was of the opinion that they should also be replanted.”

He is also one of those who have donated a number of trees.

During the meeting, Lerch called for people to do the same.

According to him, there are now four such tree sponsors.

A donor is now also being sought for the downy birch.

Mayor Scherer not only wants to continue this avenue, he also wants to make it usable for the school.

In his opinion, each of the trees should be given a plaque with the name and the associated basic information - as is known from botanical gardens.

So, he told the local newspaper, the whole thing has real educational value.

But that is a task that is still pending.

For the time being, however, he is happy that the trees are already standing.