As of: February 27, 2024, 6:00 a.m
By: Lea Warmedinger
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The protection community (from left): Johannes Gmeiner, Peter Prager, Andrea Zech, Beate Liedgens, Ana Oyarbide and Edi Liedgens do not want a so-called forest recreation area to be created here.
© private
The Isenwerk association and the market town of Isen are planning a forest playground in the Sollacher Forest.
A petition against the project already has 900 supporters.
Isen
- The planned forest playground or forest recreation area in the Sollacher Forest has long been a controversial topic in the Isen market.
Already in 2022, the market town council approved the Isenwerk association's project with five votes against.
Isenwerk eV provides the concept and finances the construction with donations and grants; the Isen market bears the maintenance.
Now, almost two years later, criticism of the playground in the forest is getting louder and louder.
Last month, Ana Oyarbide, Peter Prager, Johannes Gmeiner, Andrea and Marie Zech founded the Sollacher Forst forest and species protection community.
“We started passing around signature lists among our friends,” says Oyarbide in an interview with our newspaper.
Around 300 signatures were collected alone.
The online petition that was then launched, which is distributed via social networks such as WhatsApp and Facebook, now has almost 900 signatures.
The petition, which can be submitted in paper form to the town hall, was also included in the current issue of the Isener Marktbote.
But why is the resistance only coming now, almost two years after the local council had already approved the project?
“The majority of the people of Isen didn’t even realize that this had happened two years ago,” says Ana Oyarbide about conversations with other citizens.
That's what happened to the 34-year-old himself.
“Unfortunately we got ahead of ourselves too late,” admits Peter Prager.
“We would have preferred to file an objection in a timely manner.”
The plan for the Sollacher Forest: An early draft contains a spider web for climbing, a wobbly bridge, a trail and hanging equipment.
The play and path area is around 430 square meters.
© Isenwerk
The reason for this is that the issue has not been brought into the public eye enough.
In addition, according to Oyarbide, many market town councils are supporters of the Isenwerk.
“This is nepotism,” is the Isener’s accusation.
Mayor Irmgard Hibler sees it differently: “It’s all about the matter.” The planned overall concept should create awareness of nature.
The arguments of the Sollacher Forst Protection Association include, among other things, that the playground could possibly be used as a party location in the evenings and that garbage would end up there.
The risk of forest fires, for example from discarded cigarettes, could also increase.
Another argument is the safety of children who could potentially be spied on there.
“We are not against the playground, but against this location,” Oyarbide and Prager make clear.
As an alternative, the protection association suggests relocating the site to the Steinlandstrasse playground, which should instead be designed in a natural way.
Because: “We have so many fallow, loveless playgrounds that can be reached without a car,” says Prager.
And: “If children want to go into nature, they go into nature.”
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Another point raised by conservationists is endangered animal species in the Sollacher Forest, such as the yellow-bellied toad, the hoopoe and the black woodpecker.
However, as a report from the Lower Nature Conservation Authority confirms, no strictly protected species are being displaced in the affected area, because this area is purely a commercial forest without a special biotope.
The fact that “an area the size of several football fields” has to be cleared for the forest recreation area is misinformation from the protection community.
“Not a single additional tree will be felled,” explains Udo Rieger, architect and second chairman of Isenwerk.
The responsible Wasserburg forestry company cleared the Sollacher Forest, i.e. felled dead and ailing trees - work that is being carried out there one way or another.
The only intervention in the forest is the development of an area of almost 430 square meters with play equipment and natural paths.
This corresponds to the size of around six percent of a football field, as Isenwerk published in a “fact check”.
In addition, any intervention in the forest is compensated for by a compensation area.
The Isenwerk association has committed itself to creating and maintaining a toad biotope.
The mayor thinks it's a shame that false reports are circulating on social networks.
She also takes a critical view of the online petition: “The people who vote online often have nothing to do with Isen.” The town hall received almost 40 signatures from the paper petition in the market messenger, but not all of them from Isen community citizens be.
According to Hibler, the issue will soon be presented to the local council again.