Assen can get to work in the Marsdijk district with moving nests of rooks that have been causing nuisance for years. The municipality receives permission from the province to get the birds to an alternative nesting location outside the district in this way.
In the first instance, it concerns a trial with about twenty litters. But if the action succeeds, the rest of the rookery follows, which has been making Marsdijk restless for some time.
That provincial permission is necessary, because the rook is a protected bird. The province monitors compliance with the Nature Conservation Act, and thus also protected animal species such as the rook. But as soon as there is continuous nuisance, resulting in (health) damage, an exemption can be granted to intervene.
And that intervention in Marsdijk is desperately needed, according to a group of residents. He has been troubled by the rook for years. A large rookery around the De Beekdalhoeve children’s farm wakes local residents early. Some residents have had health problems for a long time. Smaller colonies have also emerged in several places in the district.
The residents’ working group Roekenloos Marsdijk wants the municipality to put an end to all nuisance as soon as possible. In recent months they already had permission to chase the black birds away with sound effects at the petting zoo. That partly helped. But the colony is not easily deterred and chased away.
A rook management plan with more far-reaching measures has been drawn up in consultation with behavioral biologist Diederik van Liere. Ultimately, this is based on moving the rook to an alternative nesting location on the east side of Marsdijk. The chosen place for this is a row of trees near the railway tunnel in the Vrieserweg.
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