One of the tree experts does not understand the decision to move. “You shouldn’t want this, you have to cut roots, that doesn’t make such an old tree happy. This went wrong on the drawing board. That tree should have been the center of the plan. Buying back the land and adjusting the plan seems a lot cheaper to me.”
The green adviser who engaged the municipality of Hoogeveen also concludes in the analysis “that it would be best from a tree-technical point of view to keep the tree in its current location”. According to Hoogeveen, that is not an option because the electricity station at Riegmeer cannot be moved to another location. That is very tight because a lot of cables have to be connected to it.
Walther Klomp has a green technology company in Oosterhesselen and has experience in moving trees. He confirms that it will indeed be a time-consuming and expensive job in Hollandscheveld. But he is positive about the chance of success: “This can be a great success, about 90 to 95 percent chance, but then it must of course be done in a good way.”
Klomp doesn’t actually move this kind of old trees with his company as in Hollandscheveld. “We mainly do this for private individuals and the relocation of such an old tree is really too expensive for that.” The tree expert from Oosterhesselen is surprised about the time planned for the relocation job at the Riegmeer business park. “I would prefer to take three years for such a large tree. Little by little you have to cut the roots, see how the tree reacts to that and slowly make new roots closer to the tree.”
According to Wather Klomp, this is a careful process. According to him, there are various methods for the final displacement. “You can hoist it up with a large telescopic crane. To do this, you first slide beams under the tree and then lift it with those beams, the so-called pallet method. You can also work with slings at the top of the tree, but this old oak tree seems too big and heavy for that. You can also drag it via road plates, but 250 meters is really quite a distance.”
According to the tree specialists, you should wait until autumn before you start work on the tree. “The tree must be at rest, so not full of leaves,” says Klomp. Stichting Bomenmakelaar adds that the tree must remain vertical when moving, so that the branches are damaged as little as possible. The foundation is committed to cutting down as few healthy mature trees as possible in the Netherlands.
The news about the relocation in Hollandscheveld is initially positive for Stichting Bomenmakelaar. Although the foundation would also have preferred that the oak be left alone. “You have to be careful with everything over 60 years old, those trees are so important for biodiversity. Young trees have smooth trunks and are therefore less interesting for animals. Such an old tree contains much more for the animals.” According to the Bomenmakelaar, it is important that municipalities pay sufficient attention to greenery.