An unknown person has illegally cut down four trees with an axe at a rainwater retention basin in Garbsen-Berenbostel. The city as the owner has now filed a complaint.
The sight still leaves Kai Harms stunned: in front of his feet, on the bank of the rainwater retention basin near the street Im Fuchsfeld in Berenbostel, lies a mighty birch tree. The tree was felled – and obviously not very expertly. "The traces clearly show that someone wildly hit the trunk with an axe and later completed his work with a handsaw," says Harms, who lives nearby and walks almost daily by the body of water.
Birch is already the fourth tree felled
The approximately 40-year-old birch tree is already the fourth tree that has been illegally felled in this way in recent days. Other trees also show clear damage from axe blows. The first discovered Harms’ wife with a walk on 23. January. "She thought at first that maybe a beaver had gnawed on the tree. But I looked at the tracks and could rule that out," says Harms.
Neither an animal nor the storm is responsible here, but clearly a man with an axe. "My only explanation for this act is: Here someone has taken out his blind destructiveness on nature. Maybe he got an axe for Christmas and wanted to try it out," says Harms. Together with his wife, he has drawn the attention of the police in Garbsen to the environmental outrage. The officials then also came to the retention basin to get a picture of the destruction.
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Karin Homann, spokeswoman for the Garbsen police, confirms this on request. Your colleagues would have taken photos of the felled trees. A charge of property damage had not yet been taken up on the spot, however. "Only the injured party can file a complaint himself. And that is in this case the city of Garbsen, which is the owner of the area", explains the policewoman.
"Vandalism to nature": this is how Nabu reacts
The subject of trees and their felling is currently occupying the members of the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (Nabu) in Garbsen like no other. Volunteers are campaigning with an online petition for a copse between the campus and the B 6 to be felled for the planned "Lewenslust" steakhouse – then, of course, with a political decision and quite legally.
Martina Martz from the Nabu board is all the more shocked when someone cuts down trees illegally. "To me, this is nothing more than vandalism of nature," says Martz, who has yet to hear of such cases in Garbsen. She now wants to consider with her colleagues how to protect the trees from such attacks. "It’s bad enough when people leave their trash by the waters, now someone is also recklessly cutting down the trees, that can’t be," says Martz.
Meanwhile, the city has done just that, confirms spokeswoman Christina Lange. "We assume that someone has wantonly hit the trees with an axe," she says.
But what happens now with the felled trees? The wood has the unknown with the axe not taken away, but carelessly left on the shore. Members of the Garbsen fishing club are now taking over the cleanup work. The has leased the water from the city so that members can fish there. "Fortunately, we have some people in the club who have a chainsaw license," says chairman Simon Beer.
Anglers clean up the mess
For the anglers, this is already the second operation of this kind in recent days. "The storm at the weekend brought down several trees on our site in Garbsen-Mitte. Partly we had to pull it out of the water," Beer reports. The nature lovers are understandably not pleased about the additional and abundantly unnecessary work in Berenbostel. "We now have to clean up the mess because someone has destroyed the trees in a completely stupid way," the chairman finds clear words. For volunteers, he said, it’s the first time someone has intentionally destroyed nature on their property like this.
After all, the wood carelessly left lying in the forest from the felled trees will soon be put to good use after all: "It ends up in the stove in our hut, which we heat with it," says Beer.