The jubilation of the opponents of gravel mining in Forst Kasten is great. "We all stuck together and we did it," explains Malwina Andrassy from the citizens' initiative "Wald Neuried erhalten". As reported, the Heiliggeistspital Foundation, which is owned by the City of Munich, and Gebrüder Huber Bodenrecycling GmbH have mutually agreed to cancel the lease agreement for the gravelling of a 9.5-hectare site.
Neuried - Environmental activists, conservationists and local politicians from all over the Würmtal and from Munich celebrated the fact that Forst Kasten is not being cut out on Friday evening at the Hambacher Buche at the end of Gautinger Straße in Neuried. The beech had been set on July 7, 2019 as part of the first demonstration against the gravel extraction.
The ceremony, which was musically framed by Karlheinz Honsberg, was attended by the initiatives "Wald Neuried erhalten", "Rettet den Würmtaler Wald" and "Landschaftspark West" as well as the Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald, the Bund Naturschutz, the Grünzug-Netzwerk Würmtal, Greenpeace, "Parents for future" Munich and the Klimacamp Augsburg. In her speech, Malwina Andrassy recalled the long struggle against gravel mining.
Film crew on site
"In the beginning, we always heard all the decision-makers say, 'There's nothing you can do about it.'" Nevertheless, they would have continued to fight. In the meantime, there is almost a "forest caste movement" in which many citizens' initiatives, but also clubs, associations and individuals such as the non-party Munich city councillor Felix Lechner (parliamentary group Die Linke) are involved. Neuried's mayor Harald Zipfel also supported the protest positively, says Andrassy. And against all odds, environmental activists have been sitting in tree houses in the forest for weeks. At that time, the actions had attracted attention far beyond the Würm Valley. Also on Friday, the Bayerischer Rundfunk was on site in Neuried with a film crew.
Hannelore Quintenz from the Neuried Citizens' Initiative (BIN) was delighted with the successful resistance: "Finally, our decades of efforts have paid off." For more than 25 years, the BIN has been calling on the responsible authorities, but also on the government of Upper Bavaria, with many letters, sometimes also with lawyers and experts, to end the clearing in the Kasten forest and the associated gravel mining. "Hopefully, the current insight will remain that intact forests are one of the most important measures for a healthy livelihood in the future."
The preservation of the area in Forst Kasten is a sign that the gravel can be extracted not under the forest, but also elsewhere, explained Herbert Stepp, chairman of the Würmtal green corridor network. The fact that it was announced that the lease agreement had been terminated because there were doubts about the approvability of the project due to changed framework conditions also called into question other planned gravel mining projects in Bavarian and Würmtal forests. "That's why we have to stay active."
The Kraillinger municipal councillor Werner Engl (Greens) sees it the same way. "We have more battlegrounds." He refers to the mining projects in the so-called "Douglas Grove" in the Forst Kasten, in the Lochhamer Schlag and on the thick meadow in the Planegger Holz. His council colleague Mathias Walterspiel (CSU parliamentary group) is calling for priority area 804 for gravel mining to be removed from the regional plan as soon as possible. "That's obsolete now." Walterspiel provides legal support to the citizens' initiatives in their actions.
Andreas Deny