Three monumental trees fell in a short time on the Overcingel Estate in Assen. The appearance of the garden has been seriously damaged. The trees are being replanted.
On October 18, the first tree fell, a hundreds of years old oak. “Those oaks were against each other and both leaned slightly. One was sick and we already had plans to fell it. But nature has caught up with us,” says Frank van der Velden, responsible for monument care at the Drentse Landschap, the owner.
Soon after, the oak tree next to it fell. “The ground pressure disappeared and then the other one also fell a short time later. Fortunately, we did not have any major damage because the oak trees were lost.”
The exact age of the oaks is not known. “You could count the annual rings. But the suspicion is that they are from the first construction of the garden. That was around 1800. So they are probably a few hundred years old.”
But it didn’t stop there. “Completely unexpectedly, a monumental beech fell over last Friday. It is very close to those oaks. Those oaks were on the north side. And because they have fallen away and there was a strong northerly wind last Friday, there was a gust of wind that caused this tree fell.”
He points to the fungus in the trunk. “That was actually not visible from the outside. The beech consists of three trunks. The northern trunk turned out to be weakened by fungus and took the other trunks with it in its fall. We were very sad when we discovered that this tree had also fallen. “
Does he expect more falling trees in the short term? “We assume not. But we also did not think that the beech would fall. The weather conditions are sometimes very extreme. But we hope and expect that the falling of trees will now be over for a while.”
But in the long term, more trees will suffer the same fate. “There are many old trees in this garden, because the garden is 250 years old. So more trees will indeed become sick and die over time. But of course you hope that this will happen as slowly as possible.”
According to him, there is no clear reason why they are falling over now. “That’s just plain bad luck. It’s a combination of circumstances. But it is true that the resistance of trees generally decreases due to the dry summers.”
The trees are being replanted. “We will first cultivate the soil, because there is a whole root system underneath. Then a young adult tree of the same species will be planted back. Then you need a lot of time to let it grow again into a very iconic oak,” says Van der Fields.