RTV North
In collaboration with
RTV North
ANNOUNCEMENTS••Edited
On the De Braak estate near Paterswolde, an almost 200-year-old monumental beech has been on fire since yesterday evening. “The tree lights up inside and we pump water into it,” says Reiner Hartog of Natuurmonumenten.
“When the tree is completely filled with water, we try to plug the holes and cracks so no more oxygen can get in. And then we hope the fire will go out, but it’s very difficult to put out.”
The fire was discovered around 10pm last night. Forester Bart Zwiers gets an idea of how the fire started. “The youth found it necessary to start a fire under this monumental beech,” he says RTV North. “This is the very first estate Natuurmonumenten ever bought. This beech tree was planted by landscape architect Roodbaard himself in 1824. It hurts.”
Employees of natural monuments pump water into the tree:
Monumental beech probably set on fire
Local resident Olaf Huisman saw on Monday that young people were busy setting fire to the old beech tree. “I was walking around the estate, as I often do. I saw a boy and a girl who built a fire at the foot of the tree. Then they sat down on a bench and ate chips. The rubbish ended up in the bushes. I got them confronted them about it, but they didn’t even look at me,” she says. He also said that the fireworks have been set off.
When the fire is out, it remains to be seen whether the old beech will survive. “The heat kills the life in the tree. It’s only in the next growing season or the following season that the consequences become clear,” says Hartog of Natuurmonumenten.
