The whiteberries in front of the newly renovated Planegger primary school have a good location with plenty of root space on all sides. This does not apply to all trees in the Planegger street space. © Michael Schönwälder
The municipality of Planegg consciously pays attention to its considerable tree population. Because climate change is taking its toll on the trees, an irrigation concept and an updated data collection are now to remedy the situation. The cost of 30,000 euros was well invested, the local councillors found.
Planegg – The municipality of Planegg has not only taken up the cause of becoming climate-neutral. It also wants to protect its tree population from the consequences of global warming in the best possible way. The Committee for the Environment, Urban Land Use Planning and Transport of the municipal council unanimously decided on Monday to have a differentiated irrigation concept drawn up, especially for the 3308 individual trees owned by the municipality. The rest of the more than 6000 trees are spread over groups of trees of various sizes. These should also be considered, but usually have no critical locations.
Drought stress
Even though the rainfall of the past few weeks has been good for the vegetation, the trees are stressed. This is due to the predominantly dry and hot summers since 2018. This can be clearly seen in the municipal tree population, which is inspected annually by the expert office Treeconsult. The number of tree care measures, especially deadwood removal, has increased, according to Planegg's environmental officer Richard Richter. "Due to climate change, a further intensification of this development can be expected in the future." In the past, Richter searched in vain for a "reasonable irrigation concept", but now the municipality is having one developed by Treeconsult as part of its climate adaptation strategy.
In 2006, work began on recording the individual trees in a tree register. You will receive a plaque with a number and barcode attached to an aluminum nail on the trunk. In the tree cadastre program, all findings and measures of the past years can be read. The currently used master data of the trees such as trunk circumference, height and crown diameter are from the year 2010. An update is advisable in order to avoid subsequent increases in the price of tree care measures due to a calculation basis that is no longer applicable.
Evaluate growth behavior
As part of the new recording of the master data, Treeconsult will statistically evaluate the growth behavior of different tree species at different locations and at the same time collect previously unrecorded site parameters. "Based on the growth that the trees have had over the past 13 years, we can determine what the vitality looks like," Richter explained. From this, suggestions could be derived in terms of site improvements or planting proposals. For example, the very small tree slices in Lena-Christ-Straße in Martinsried, where trees have little space for their roots, are not ideal. That's why the rock pear, which does not grow very large, is planted there. It looks a little better in the parking lot of the Feodor-Lynen-Gymnasium, because the plane trees there at least have a tree ditch. "Here, too, we have seen in recent years that they are fighting," Richter said. The flour berries in front of the newly renovated Planegger primary school in Josef-von-Hirsch-Straße have been well caught. "It was built there in such a way that they can take root all around."
The updating of the master data and the development of the irrigation concept cost a total of almost 30,000 euros. "I think the money is very well invested," said Richter. The committee members took a similar view. "It should definitely be worth it to us," said Judith Grimme (Greens). And Florian Zeller (FWD) said: "Of course I'm in favour of it. Who can have anything against trees?"
