You cycle along the Drenthe lands and suddenly it stands out: there is just a group of trees in the middle of a tightly sown field. Why does a farmer leave that piece of land unused, while the rest of the field is neatly used?
Five years ago we received a similar question from Levi from Assen. Then we dived extensively into the subject and we spoke with foresters and landscape managers. Because John now stimulates us again with the same wonder, we look back on the answers from then and we explain why such bunches can still be seen in Drenthe.
One of the most common explanations is that it concerns so -called bullying forests, also known as spleenvuurbosjes. Forester Bertil Zoer told us about that five years ago. Farmers used to burst their dead cattle on a remote piece of land, often because the animals had succumbed to infectious diseases such as a cattle test or spleen. As a precaution, that place was then left alone, so there was no danger to contamination of the rest of the herd.
Anja Verbers from Landscape Management Drenthe explained that this gave trees and bushes free rein. This created the recognizable tree groups that you can still encounter in the middle of a field.
But not every bunch has to do with sick cattle. Some are on historic soil. Landscape manager Verbers pointed out to us that in Drenthe there can also be burial mounds or even small hunebeds under such a tree group. Such places often have protected status, which saves them during land consolidations.
Staatsbosbeheer emphasized that these types of landscape elements are important for the landscape and biodiversity. And not to forget: on hot summer days, the trees also ensure a welcome shade for the cattle in the meadow.
Sometimes the bushes had a very practical function. It used to be normal for farmers to have their own coppice forest, also called a convenience forest. It supplied firewood for the stove and wood for utensils such as stems of clouds and brooms.
Such a small grove in the middle of the country was therefore a valuable pantry. The fact that many of those bushes have been preserved means that you still come across them in the Drenthe landscape.
In addition, there are bushes that originate in the ice age. Pingoruins, old craters that are created by raising ground ice, are often recognizable by a ring -shaped vegetation, usually with birch trees. There are thousands in Drenthe.
Jewish cemeteries are also sometimes in the middle of the field and can be recognized by small groups of trees. In short: what seems to be a tree group at first sight can be an age -old landscape element with a story that goes back well before our time.
So you see: an innocent group of trees can mean anything from a place where centuries ago cattle were buried to a silent memory of the ice age. And even though we have answered a question years ago, it can still be interesting to dive into it again.