Anyone who lives in the municipality of Westerveld may have already noticed: cards with a QR code are hanging on the trees in various places. The municipality wants to avoid confusion and inform residents at an early stage about the felling of trees in their neighborhood.
“Cutting down a tree always gives emotion,” says Patrick Brouwer, Green Policy Advisor for the municipality of Westerveld. “Some people are happy with it and see it as fireplace wood, while others would like to keep the tree. We now provide insight into why you should cut down a tree.”
In the past, tree felling sometimes led to difficult conversations. “Then the well-known yellow dot appeared,” says Brouwer. “Only when the man came with the saw, he was often asked: why does that tree have to go?” The municipality hopes that this is now a thing of the past.
Anyone who scans the QR code on the tree will see an interactive tree map with all kinds of stars and dots on it. The dots represent the trees to be planted, the asterisks represent the trees that are being felled. If you then click on the relevant tree in your area, you will see characteristics such as age, thickness and species, but also the reason why the tree cannot remain standing.
In the Vlasstraat in Diever there are a few trees with such a card on their trunk. The inspection, hired externally by the municipality, recently rejected the trees. The reason: ‘poor condition and end of life cycle’, the system writes.
The municipality of Westerveld copied the card method from the municipality of Rotterdam. A number of other municipalities also preceded Westerveld. But Brouwer is careful to speak of a Northern scoop. “I think we are one of the first in the Northern Netherlands to make it known in this way. We have come back from quite a backlog when it comes to tree management. We have now got this in such order that we can say: we can start working with this method,” Brouwer explains, referring to the interactive tree map that is complete.
Do trees also have to be cut down to produce the cards? Nothing could be further from the truth. According to the municipality, the cards are made from recycled material and will last for several years. “The contractor takes the tag off and gives it back to us so we can use it again the next year.”
The municipality will only hang up the cards in built-up areas, not in the woods or along sixty kilometers of roads.