Botanist Eddy Weeda (73) enthusiastically greets Natuurmonumenten ranger Ellen ter Stege at the entrance to the Beekbergerwoud, southeast of Apeldoorn. “What about the Parnassia?” he asks from under his straw hat. But the flowery grassland in which the rare plant grew appears to have just been mown.
Weeda is a regular in the Beekbergerwoud. He first came there 44 years ago, attracted by the legendary status of the place – for a long time it was considered the last primeval forest in the Netherlands. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, botanists and poets united in singing the praises of the forest. They wrote about a forest with “thousands of birds”, “one of the rare places in the jungle” and a “flower carpet more beautiful than perhaps in the richest flower garden” – until the ax was cut in 1869. Or, in the words of Weeda: “The economy took on a divine halo and decided the fate of the Dutch landscape. It became a sacred duty to get rid of what did not demonstrably contribute to prosperity.”
Water mint. “You can make delicious tea from that.”
Photo Bram Petraeus
The Beekberger Forest At one point it had largely turned into agricultural land.
Photo Bram Petraeus
What remains is a combination of agricultural land intersected by the A50 and a piece of swamp forest through which you can walk via a boardwalk – more than fifteen years ago, Natuurmonumenten started planting alder trees here as a first step to restore the forest to its old state.
But what was that old state? How ‘primeval’ was the forest? That is a question that has occupied Weeda for almost twenty years. Since 2006 he has been researching the history of the Beekberger Forest. “Ultimately it should result in a dissertation, but that has to be pruned back to remain readable. I am constantly getting new insights. For example, species grow here that you would not immediately expect in a swamp forest, such as wood anemones. Then I want to know: how did they get here?”
Eddy Weeda’s drive is praised throughout the plant-loving Netherlands. The love of nature started early. “At the age of two I was already enthusiastically leafing through the Verkade albums of Jac. P. Thijsse. And at the age of seventeen I wrote my first botanical article, about the thread gentian.” Every botanist knows his five-piece Dutch Ecological Flora; Weeda also wrote a series of other books and hundreds of articles. “In the winter I write, in the summer I can be found in the fields.”
Even now, from the boardwalk, he enthusiastically shares his knowledge: “Do you see those light purple flowers of the water mint? Just smell the leaves – very peppermint-like. You can make delicious tea from them.” In contrast to the seductive orange-red berries of the bittersweet, a member of the potato and tomato family. “They are poisonous.”
As early as the 13th century, a bit of ‘primeval’ disappeared from the forest
Traditionally, the Beekbergerwoud was a seepage forest, says Weeda: a place where acidic water welled up from the flank of the Veluwe and mixed with calcareous groundwater from the bottom of the IJssel valley. “Initially, the Oude Beek also flowed into the swamp forest, a stream that originated on the west side of the village of Beekbergen. But around the thirteenth century the course was shifted to keep a water mill running.”
In other words: already then a bit of the primeval disappeared from the forest. In any case, Beekbergen did not have pristine forests at the time, but production forests with oak and alder. “The oak trunks were even exported to Arnhem in the Middle Ages.” Later, alders became popular as coppicing wood, especially when the copper industry emerged and alders turned out to provide good quality charcoal.
“Due to war, many forests in the area were burned down – war has been the greatest threat to nature since time immemorial, together with the economy. But the free-spirited village of Beekbergen was a bit of Asterix & Obelix on the Veluwe, the residents kept their pants on for a long time.” Unfortunately, after a long, harsh winter in 1740, the forest was ruined and had to be replanted. “Beekbergen fell deeply into the red and it was not until the nineteenth century that the forest had grown into a significant forest again.”
Romantic view of the forest
Weeda points to an alder tree right next to the boardwalk. “Now the alders only have a few trunks, but at the time it was full of alder stumps: trees with a multitude of trunks, created by repeated felling of the wood.” The leaves of current alders are full of holes. “They feed on the alder beetles, beautiful golden-colored beetles. They do no harm, the trees don’t grow any less.”
The romantic nineteenth-century view of the Beekberger Forest flared up thanks to the agriculturalist and botanist Jan Wttewaall (pronounced: Utewaal). “He described the forest in 1836 as a botanical treasure trove.” Big names then came to admire what they saw as unspoiled nature, including soil science pioneer Winand Staring and the philanthropist Rev. Ottho Heldring. “There was plenty of collecting going on: the herbarium of Naturalis in Leiden contains hundreds of dried plants from the Beekberger Forest.”
Traditionally the Beekberger Forest a seepage forest, into which water from the Veluwe seeps.
Photo Bram Petraeus
The alders have been eaten by “beautiful golden beetles.”
Photo Bram Petraeus
So it became a forest with a capital W. A jungle. “Although you have to see that word in the light of nineteenth-century Romanticism. In the original meaning of the word, a forest is simply a swamp or a wet forest, and a jungle is simply a forest that gives a primeval feeling. I love art from Romanticism, but scientifically you have to critically examine the descriptions. They gradually became more and more fictionalized, everyone added extra, until there was a kind of pastiche was created in which the forest was bursting with gigantic, age-old trees. And that glorification only increased once the forest was cut down.”
Not every Wttewaall was equally impressed by the value of the forest. “A cousin of Jan, Baron Sloet tot Oldhuis, looked at the beautiful alders through financial glasses and subsequently became a lobbyist for the demolition of the forest,” says Weeda, surrounded by beautiful plants such as wood rush and the flaming purple loosestrife. “In his opinion, 36 small farms could be founded after cutting and selling all the wood.” The forest was sold for more than 100,000 guilders; on November 1, 1869 the first tree was knocked down. „NRC wrote very highly about it at the time. They glorified that orgy of forest destruction as a sign of progress.” The only newspaper that expressed skepticism about the hood was the Catholic weekly The Maasbode. “He warned that the disappearance of the forest could lead to climate change.”
Trees became cigar boxes
Only afterwards did more criticism arise. “As a monument to the former nature of our country, this forest had no less value than old buildings for the history of national art,” wrote Frederik van Eeden senior. “Saving such remarkable places from demolition hands had to be entrusted to the Royal Academy of Sciences.” But his words came like mustard after dinner. “And all this while it all ended in a financial disaster,” says Weeda, while the noise of the A50 can be heard in the distance. “The wood was bought for next to nothing by a manufacturer who had it made into cigar boxes. The forest was also much less profitable after extraction than Baron Sloet tot Oldhuis had predicted.”
The rest is history. The Beekberger Forest was given legendary status and largely turned into agricultural land, until Natuurmonumenten took care of it. Work started in 2006. To retain water for longer, ditches have been closed and weirs have been installed; In addition, the construction of artificial higher sand hills has provided more relief. These so-called horsts are planted with tree species that have disappeared from the area, such as hornbeam and winter lime. The boardwalk has also been constructed and cattle have been released for grazing in the area. In the meantime, Weeda delved into history: he sifted through herbaria, historical publications and account books to uncover the bottom stone.
Initially he also moved into the rougher eastern side of the Beekberger Forest on his own. “But ranger Ellen no longer thinks that is such a good idea, in case something were to happen to me.” Fortunately, there is also plenty to discover in the less wild part. “Nodding nailwort, for example, and therefore those wood anemones. Species that you would not expect here, but that may have arrived with newly planted oaks in the eighteenth century. My research started in 2006 with the white goose oak, an alien species that probably arrived in the forest with Austrian seed potatoes. Because of the height differences that used to exist, drought-loving species could survive in the higher parts of the forest.”
That pronounced relief has now disappeared. “Everything has been leveled. It is therefore not possible to really restore the Beekberger Forest to its old state, also because the forest has had different appearances over the centuries. But now, thanks to the efforts of Natuurmonumenten, something else beautiful is emerging in return. For a long time, the view in the Netherlands was that you should intervene as little as possible in nature, but sometimes management is necessary to achieve the greatest diversity.”
On the open plain where mowing was recently done, Weeda squats down near some flowering plants. The parnassia appears to have indeed disappeared, as has the blue knot – a species from the honeysuckle family loved by insects. “But look! That plant with the yellow flowers has whole leaves, characteristic of areas with calcareous groundwater. And the winged deer grass a little further away is an indicator for seepage water. So you will always find something interesting.”
Walking back to his bike, he hums something Waldszenena nineteenth-century nine-movement romantic piano composition by Robert Schumann. Some titles of the individual parts, including Lonely flowers and Goodbyeseem to apply to the Beekberger Forest. “Sometimes art and science merge beautifully.”
Eddy Weeda in the Beekberger Forest. The botanist has been researching the area for years.
Photo Bram Petraeus
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