The municipality of Bergeijk is furious because a row of ten trees on the Galgenberg have been deliberately poisoned. Large holes have been drilled at the bottom of the trunk into which a poisonous substance has been poured. But not everyone is sad that the trees are dead and being cut down. Richard Kuylaars certainly had a lot of trouble with the alders for his car company until a few years ago. “I’m probably the number one main suspect, but I would never do this. It’s very exaggerated and I don’t understand why.”
Car dealer Richard soon received messages from acquaintances about the poisoned row of trees. “Was I the perpetrator?” he says, laughing. He must admit that he was not a fan of the Japanese Caucasian alder (Alnus Spaethii). “I have nothing against trees and recently planted one myself, but so much rubbish falls from these alders.”
The trees were planted around the turn of the century. “I went to the municipality to ask about the green plan. I have a car company and had forty to fifty cars outside at the time.” The car dealer was told that he had no say in the type of trees. “But they would take my business into account and that was enough for me.”
“The biggest bastards around.”
The first few years Richard had no problems, but when the trees really grew big, that changed. “It turned out I had the biggest bastards there are on my doorstep.” The car dealer became tired of all the small twigs and cone-shaped clumps of alder falling down on his cars. “I could clean everything continuously.”
A few years ago, Richard had a large commercial shed installed on his property and his car company became a lot smaller. “So it doesn’t bother me that much anymore, except for all the rubbish that fell on the roof of my house. Until recently, I had to clean my gutter every month.
“They were completely bald in April.”
At first he didn’t even realize that something was wrong with the alders. “A boa pointed it out to me and it was only then that I realized that those trees were not in bloom last spring.” More people along the Galgenberg noticed this. “In April they were completely bald and I thought that was strange. I recently saw that research was being done here,” says Richard’s neighbor. She also experienced some nuisance from all the rubbish that fell from the alders.
“But poison? No, I wouldn’t even dare!”, the woman says firmly. She is disappointed that the news now makes their house and business premises completely visible everywhere. “Soon the whole of Bergeijk will think that we have done it. We want to sell our house. Then this is not good advertising. And all those trees that are being removed don’t really help either.”
“You have to have guts.”
Car dealer Richard thinks the poisoning is a daring but exaggerated action. “My neighbors and I no longer have an interest in it, but who does? And with all those cameras and security driving around here, drilling ten of those big holes. Then you have to have courage.”
But certainly not all companies were bothered by the alders and some think it is a shame that the trees are now being removed and small ones are coming back for them. The municipality of Bergeijk is especially angry, not only because of the financial damage, but also because they are proud of the green industrial estate where there are countless trees and now a whole row is disappearing. And Richard understands that too. “But it would be nice if the municipality replaced a different type of tree and no longer these alders.”
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