As of: January 18, 2024, 7:00 p.m
By: Nico Bauer
Comments
Press
Split
Here, Moosburg's city gardener Michael Guyens shows the massive damage to the roots of an ash tree caused by the honey fungus.
© Farmer
The city of Moosburg has to cut down its entrance gate to the city forest.
Ash shoot dieback and the honey fungus make this measure without an alternative.
Moosburg
– “I could cry.” Moosburg's mayor Josef Dollinger was visibly moved when he initiated an on-site appointment in the first few meters of the Moosburg city forest.
The city's experts had to inform that the entrance gate to the city forest had to be completely felled in a strip 30 meters wide and 85 meters long.
The path through the so-called Schwarzhölzl leads from Stadtwaldstraße past the senior center and is extremely busy.
“You needed a flashlight here in the middle of summer,” Dollinger said, “because the trees were so thick and made everything dark.”
City gardener Michael Guyens had the sad duty of having to explain the reasons for the “tabula rasa complete felling”.
The majority of the trees are ash trees, which are affected by ash shoot dieback.
That alone isn't nice, but it's not the reason for the coercive measure.
In addition, there is extreme infestation on the area by the honey fungus, which attaches itself to weakened trees.
“Without the honey fungus, the ash trees don’t fall over,” said Guyens, “but both are too much.”
The trees pose a great danger
And the fungus is everywhere.
The city gardener shows a tree that has already fallen and the damage to the root system is clearly visible.
“This tree only fell on a garage and caused minor damage,” Guyens said.
He then points to the next trees that have been marked with green paint for urgent felling: “These trees would fall on a bench in front of the senior center.
This is a great danger.”
“I could cry,” said Mayor Josef Dollinger (right), visibly moved.
Moosburg's city gardener Michael Guyens (l., here together with city forest ranger Bernd Halmen) had previously brought him the bad news.
© Farmer
Michael Guyens knows almost every tree.
He goes just one trunk further and describes the next problem: “This ash tree here is halfway okay, but far from good.
If the neighboring trees are cut down, then that tree is no longer safe.
The exemption brings new problems.” The root network from the natural wonder of the forest no longer exists and the solitary tree has no protection from big storms.
The uncontrolled fall would then only be a matter of time.
After almost all trees have been felled, four biotope trees are expected to remain standing.
These are diseased ash trees that also have fungal infestation, but do not pose a danger.
These trees cannot fall on paths or buildings.
Guyens assumes that the last trees in the Schwarzhölzl can remain standing for another ten years.
And he shows another dramatic play at the edge of the grove towards the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses: “A tree has to go.
The other one next to it is healthy and will certainly be weakened by the removal.
But no one can say how much.
But I can't sleep peacefully if the tree can fall at any time in the parking lot, which is full several times a week." The trees are felled by the city of Moosburg in February.
“We won’t see this forest again”
Then it will be replanted, but a dense forest with darkness during the day will probably only exist again in 60 years.
“None of us will experience this forest again,” says Guyens.
That's why middle school and high school students should help plant, because they could later tell their grandchildren about the forest's new beginning.