Tree felling and forest maintenance in Bocholt's municipal forest

In the area of the Bocholt city forest, necessary tree felling work will begin next week to secure the traffic routes. This will initially affect the areas of Am Ziegelofen and In der Ziegelheide, before further forest maintenance measures in the centre of the city forest follow in March. In this way, the city of Bocholt is responding to identified weaknesses in vitality and promoting a healthy and diverse forest population in the long term.

Work in the area of the streets Am Ziegelofen and In der Ziegelheide will start on Tuesday, 17 February. As part of the regular tree inspections, a total of ten red oaks were found to be significantly weakened by a fungal disease. Detailed investigations using drilling resistance measurements confirmed that the remaining wall thickness of the trunks no longer fulfils a sufficient static function.

The city of Bocholt has announced that the removal of these trees is unavoidable in order to ensure road safety and to rule out any danger to passers-by and moving traffic.

The affected areas will be closed for a total of five days. The closure will take place in stages in order to minimise the restrictions for citizens. In consideration of the morning school traffic, the work will only start after the start of lessons and the affected roads will remain passable away from the work. The city administration is also using the period of the full closure to carry out necessary tree care measures in the immediate vicinity in parallel with the felling work.

This work will be followed by further scheduled forest maintenance measures within the entire municipal forest from mid-March. These will focus primarily on the areas along the paths and squares. Around 250 individual trees of various species - including oaks, beeches and pines - will be removed. In addition, a contiguous poplar stand will be thinned out.

The main aim of this work is to keep the municipal forest healthy. A forestry company is carrying out the work on behalf of the city of Bocholt. The city administration asks all citizens and visitors to the forest for their understanding if there are short-term restrictions or small detours on the usual paths during the work.