New elms in the Criewen Cas­tle Park

The ash dieback takes its toll in the Low­er Oder Val­ley Nation­al Park and does not stop at the mon­u­ment pro­tec­tion. In the east­ern part of the Criewen Cas­tle Park there are many ash trees, those from the, through the hose mush­room Chalara frax­inea trig­gered ash diebacks are affect­ed. There is no anti­dote, the trees die in a short time and become a latent secu­ri­ty risk for visitors.

Nor­mal­ly, the landown­er is respon­si­ble for main­tain­ing safe­ty. It was with a heavy heart that he decid­ed, after con­sult­ing the state and dis­trict author­i­ty for gar­den mon­u­ment preser­va­tion, to remove all the sick and dead ash trees. In their place elms are to be plant­ed, which also fit into the orig­i­nal Lenne park concept.

The Nation­al Park Asso­ci­a­tion very much regrets hav­ing to make this deci­sion, but unfor­tu­nate­ly it sees no oth­er option in weigh­ing up nature and human pro­tec­tion on this heav­i­ly fre­quent­ed dri­ving and hik­ing trail.

Thomas Berg
CEO