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Meckenheim: The donated trees were here
Photo: Henning Kaiser / dpa
A company commissioned by the city felled more than 1,000 donated trees in Meckenheim near Bonn. A city spokeswoman said it was apparently an unfortunate oversight. The specialist company was supposed to mulch an adjacent area - and in the process also razed the small forest planted by a foundation to the ground.
"We were completely horrified, tears were shed," said Norbert Schaffrath, chairman of the board of trustees of the Meckenheim-based German Children's Direct Aid Foundation (DKD). The DKD, which supports disadvantaged children and young people, planted the trees in 2020 with the help of donations. Children took on sponsorships and watered the seedlings - including elms, maples and poplars - with small watering cans, described Schaffrath. The trees were “thriving magnificently” and some were five meters tall. "Now it's just a forest cemetery."
The property that belongs to the city is a so-called compensation area for an industrial park on which the city had to reforest in accordance with the Federal Nature Conservation Act. When the foundation offered to plant the trees, the city gratefully accepted.
“The relevant area was clearly marked on a map”
A natural meadow will be created on the adjacent area, as the spokeswoman said. That's why a company was commissioned to remove the wild growth there with large equipment and to mulch the area. "The relevant area was clearly marked on a map."
It is unclear how the foundation trees came to be cleared and chopped up. “They probably drove straight ahead with the forestry mulcher instead of making a turn,” said the spokeswoman.
The city asked the company to plant new trees as quickly as possible. In addition, claims for damages against the company would be examined.
wit/dpa