Dry summers are becoming a more common occurrence in The Netherlands, and the changing conditions will have a major impact on the landscape and natural surroundings in Groningen and Drenthe.
Translation by Hans de Preter
The forests will look very different, with fine spruces, which suffer a lot from the drought, being replaced by other trees. Many trees in gardens and streets will disappear, and meadows in the low peat bogs of Drenthe will also likely disappear.
Nature managers in the Northern Netherlands expect all of these outcomes, reports the Dagblad van het Noorden. The newspaper spoke to a number of employees from nature conservation organisations such as The Groninger Landscape and Landscape Management Drenthe.
According to the newspaper, there are already dead trees in Drenthe and not only the Norway spruce, but also the birch, the beech, the linden and the conifer are also suffering severely from the dry conditions. Even conifer hedges are dying.
André Effting from the Tree Watch of Landscape Management Drenthe thinks that the future is not so gloomy that an alarmbell needs to be sounded, because although some tree species are disappearing others, especially those imported from the south, are doing very well again. These include the plane tree, acacias and walnut trees.
Low peat
But Jan Beekman, manager of the Hunze Valley for the Groningen Landscape, is indeed gloomy. According to him, the peat is drying out, causing it to sink further down. This can no longer be protected with dikes, which means that it will be submerged in water, making agriculture no longer possible. When the pasture disappears, we will quickly lose the meadow birds, according to Beekman.
Photo source: Wikipedia
