Hoogeveen stands its ground: the large pedunculate oak in Hollandscheveld has to make way for a transformer station. The municipality takes the growing resistance to the hood and the fuss about it for granted.
It’s not a local issue anymore. The controversial felling decision of the municipality of Hoogeveen has now received national attention. National news channels, newspapers and websites have picked up the news about the endangered pedunculate oak on the Albartsweg in Hollandscheveld.
This felling decision proves again: trees evoke emotions, they connect nature lovers and get people to sign petitions for conservation. Especially if a healthy, valuable and monumental specimen has to wobble for the construction of a transformer station.
Move up?
The general tenor of the reactions: on such a large, still undeveloped business park (Riegmeer), that thing can move a bit?! With no possibility, the municipality persists.
She comes with a technical explanation about ‘necessary very wide cable routes’; trenches in which the cables are laid. Precisely for this reason, this plot would be the only suitable location on the business park.
According to alderman Jan Zwiers (Municipal Interests), the logging decision was not taken lightly. He says that he has ‘made every effort to safeguard the ecological values’. Complete with a list of measures to preserve nature and the environment on the same business park.
Last spring
Commendable, but that does not help the lamented pedunculate oak. After almost a hundred years, it is on its last spring. Around him the stumps of a few trees that were not on the municipal list of trees worthy of protection.
But inclusion on this list does not guarantee preservation. The protected status, according to rules on the municipal website, can be circumvented if such a valuable tree is sick, unsafe or causes a disproportionate amount of nuisance.
The pedunculate oak in question does not meet these criteria, but according to the municipality it blocks a very important development. Without the transformer station, sustainability in the region will stagnate, it is said. Because the electricity grid is full. New companies cannot be connected and the large-scale application of solar panels, for example, is hampered because the electricity cannot be supplied back.
No one disputes the importance of the transformer station for Hoogeveen. The resistance is mainly in the location and decision-making around the hood. Many years ago, the valuable pedunculate oak was not labeled ‘don’t touch’ when Riegmeer was designated a business park.
Choice
That’s a choice. But one that the municipality is now throwing like a boomerang in the neck. Because the pedunculate oak threatened with hood also symbolizes something else: the perception that the government does not take other feelings and interests into account. Confronting residents with an almost fait accompli.
An example is the message from resident, entrepreneur and musician Fake ten Caat from Hollandscheveld. His lamentation about the lack of creativity in the municipality at a time when nature is already struggling, went viral on Wednesday and received a lot of support (nationally). It is certainly not lost on the administrators at the town hall.
Chance is small
But despite the growing protest against the felling of the pedunculate oak and the petition on the internet, there is little chance that the permit will be withdrawn. In such cases, the public interest usually prevails over individual values and opinions. On the other hand: it ain’t over till the fat lady sings. The felling permit is not yet final.
The tree is already affectionately called ‘care oak’. An oak also with a story. Planted by Alie Kroezen’s grandfather, almost a hundred years ago. The tree is actually an excellent opportunity for the municipality of Hoogeveen to turn all the fuss and anger about the hood into a standing ovation with an ultimate rabbit-out-of-the-hat rescue.
To paraphrase an old exclamation: make up a ruse! That would be something.
Five objections so far
Until Wednesday afternoon, the municipality of Hoogeveen had received five objections to the felling permit for the pedunculate oak in Hollandscheveld. According to a spokesperson, these are individual protests from residents of the municipality of Hoogeveen. “The objections committee has indicated that any objectors from outside Hoogeveen must have a demonstrable interest in this matter,” said the spokesperson. Until May 17, people can still object to the felling decision. One is running on the internet petition for the preservation of the tree, which has already been signed by many hundreds of Hoogeveners.