If the planned P43 power line is planned along the A7 motorway, trees in the approximately 1,600 hectare community forest would have to be felled. According to the network operator Tennet, the route would have to be 60-70 meters wide. The mayor Mario Götz (CSU / FW) of Oberthulba in the Bad Kissingen district fears that an aisle up to 100 meters wide would be necessary. “It would mean a massive encroachment on the community forest, 60 to 70 hectares are available and that is a massive encroachment because our forest also makes an important contribution as a CO2 store and as a water store,” says Götz.
“Wood lawyers” see forest management measures in danger
In Oberthulba there has been a timber law that has existed since the Middle Ages. Around 100 households are entitled to wood from the community forest, for which they take care of the rearing and care of the forest, among other things. The wood lawyers do not want to give up a hectare for a possible power line, because the community had already lost usable forest twice. In 1960 around 70 hectares for the construction of the motorway and in 2015 around 50 hectares for the Rhön Biosphere Reserve. One of the wood lawyers is Andreas Kleinhenz. He says: “It has now taken us two years to reforest two hectares of forest. Yes, you need two lives to be able to restore something like that and that just makes me sad.”
Endangerment of deer migration routes
According to the hunting tenant Martin Blüm, the A7 had severed red deer migration routes. A game bridge built nine years ago with wooden walls around three meters high on the sides as noise and glare protection ensured, according to his assessment, that the game was moving again. “The wildlife bridge has developed very well in recent years, but if the power line existed, either east or west of the motorway with a width of 80 to 100 meters, a piece of red deer would never cross this wildlife bridge again,” says Blüm.
500 hectares of forest endangered?
The Fulda-Main AC line could go from Dipperz east of Fulda to Bergrheinfeld near Schweinfurt. Nine municipalities would be affected. From Motten, Bad Brückenau, Riedenberg, Schondra, Oberthulba, Elfershausen, Wasserlosen to Bergrheinfeld. According to the Oberthulbaer, a total of 500 hectares of forest would have to be cleared. The wood lawyer Johannes Schmück criticizes that the line is only used up to 18 percent. Tennet denies that. And then he would have liked the line to be attached to an existing route to Großkrotzenburg on the Lower Main in Hesse. But that doesn’t work either, says Tennet.
–
