The centuries-old pedunculate oak in Hollandscheveld has not been voted Tree of the Year. This year, the much-discussed tree on the Albartsweg was threatened with a chainsaw to make room for an electricity station. A storm of criticism prevented this scenario.
In the final results, the Hollandscheveld tree came in eleventh place with 159 votes.
The Marialinde in the heart of Oisterwijk in Brabant is the winner with 7,076 votes. The tree has been in history books since 1388. “The tree is inextricably intertwined with the history of Oisterwijk,” writes SBNL Natuurfonds, the organization of the election. With the title, the tree is also the Dutch entry for the European election Tree of the Year which will be held in February 2024.
Second place in the final ranking is filled by De Rode Beuk from the Baroniestad in IJsselstein (4,906 votes). The stage is completed by ‘the tree that gives air’ in Zaandam (688 votes).
The commotion around the Drenthe oak started this spring. Members of GroenLinks in Hoogeveen started a petition to get the felling plans off the table. The municipality of Hoogeveen and those involved agreed in July, when the commotion had been going on for months, to move the tree this autumn, about 250 meters away from its current location.