Countless rose petals made of polyester, scattered on a 1000 square meter meadow: Children found this nature-polluting legacy during Ramadama on the southern shore of Lake Walchensee. The other garbage also shows little respect for the landscape conservation area.
Jachenau – For a couple in love, it was probably a romantic moment – but what remains of it does not testify to love, but to disregard for nature. At the Jachenau Ramadama, children found countless polyester rose petals on the southern shore of Lake Walchensee, which were scattered on the ground over an area of around 1000 square meters.
+Everything in the bag: the scrambled rose petals.
© Sara Herfurth
Since there was no Ramadama in the first Corona spring, the action in the Jachenau has been a little different. In the past, only the children of the ski club cleaned the cross-country ski trail, but now all Jachenau parents are called upon to pick out one or more areas for themselves and their children in order to clean up there. This then happens in a period of three weeks until Georgi – from then on, entering the meadows damages the plant growth. According to the municipality, 48 children took part this year and were each rewarded with a ten-euro voucher for the village shop.
Chip bags, beer bottles, diapers and cigarette butts
Among the many helpers were Sara Herfurth and her three children (10, 7 and 5). They took over the section between Wasserwacht and Einsiedl on the southern shore of Lake Walchensee, while another family cleaned up from Niedernach to Wasserwacht.
"Garbage everywhere you look, and that in a landscape conservation area – or maybe because of it?", Sara Herfurth sums up her impressions. She is surprised: All visitors to this popular local recreation area are united by the "longing for a natural landscape". At the same time, they would produce a lot of garbage. "There are the empty water or beer bottles and their lids, the cigarette butts, the snue packets, the empty chip bags, the packaging of ready-made food and chewing gum cans, broken flip-flops, children's shovels or swimwear," she lists.
Mother angry: "Laborious, exhausting and time-consuming"
Many people are aware of the value of a landscape that is "left in its natural state". "Some others, however, are so relaxed and happy from a day in the Jachenau or at the lake that the consistent taking of their own garbage with them is simply too much," she writes in a report on the Ramadama.
The legacies of a "romantic celebration on a "beautifully situated meadow by the lake, accessible from the road" are the best example. Hundreds of these plastic leaves were found not only in the grass, but also between the stones of the riverbank buildings and in the adjacent forest," says the 39-year-old. In order to collect all the polyester rose petals, Herfurth called in her brother and his two children – a Sisyphean task that took two adults and five children over an hour. "Anyone who has ever collected the confetti of a children's or carnival party knows what it's like – tedious, exhausting and time-consuming!" The children also found many burst balloons in the area.
+A discarded salami package in the forest - was by no means the only one.
© Sara Herfurth
A lot of garbage also at the toilet houses
In addition, there were the legacies of other excursionists. "Diapers are often disposed of behind the road in the forest, as are entire garbage bags," Herfurth reports. Some contemporaries also apparently misunderstand the toilet houses as an "invitation to leave garbage there".
She points out that this poses a great danger to wildlife. "Attracted by the smell, the animals grab the food packaging in particular and disappear into the forest." Throughout the south bank area, there is packaging with salami, grilled sausage, Kässpätzle and other items bitten by animals. On the nine-kilometer section on the south bank, the children collected 16 bags full of garbage, according to Herfurth.
Region is a protected landscape area
In total, the community had included 20 areas in the Ramadama action. These included various hiking trails, districts, parking lots and the cycle path from the district of Raut towards Lenggries. On this four-kilometer stretch alone, two garbage bags were filled.
Sara Herfurth reminds us that according to the ordinance of the district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen on the "Walchensee" landscape conservation area, it is forbidden to "destroy or adversely change the habitats (biotopes) of animals and plants". She therefore has a great wish: "To ensure that the beautiful landscape in Jachenau and at Lake Walchen remains as natural as possible, every visitor can take a look at their own nose and consistently take all their garbage home with them in the future."
You can find even more up-to-date news from the region at Merkur.de/Bad Tölz.