Dozens of children from scouting group De Rangers Zuidlaren frolic through the young forest near Zuidlaren. These five to seven year old beavers help pull the young seedlings out of the ground. “We are pulling out trees and then moving them,” Lone explains. “Houses are being built here and otherwise they will be cut down or die.”
The house construction is confirmed by councilor Jurryt Vellinga. The future of the site has been discussed for a long time. There used to be an exhibition complex here. In the meantime, the young seedlings have grown between the paved parking lots. But the shovel will be in the ground early next year, according to the councilor. “A very beautiful, green residential area with homes for all kinds of people.”
“It will be a very green neighborhood,” Vellinga emphasizes. “Important structures such as tree banks are preserved, but all the growth of small trees disappears. These must be cut down and mowed.”
Ids Toxopeus from Meer Bomen Nu, together with the municipality, wants to save as many seedlings as possible before the contractor comes to prepare the land for construction. Together with the scouts he pulls hundreds of small trees out of the ground. “As a tree, it is nice if you get a second chance. The greenery that is here did not come here for nothing and what could be better than that we make the municipality of Tynaarlo happy? It makes the people who help and the children happy and people those who pick up a tree are also completely happy.”
Most of the trees on this site are given a second life near Eelde. According to Toxopeus, what remains goes to a ‘tree hub’. “That is a temporary storage area where we collect the trees and then we have distribution days again on February 1 and March 1.”