Agro­forestry in Stolzenhagen

On a field in the Low­er Oder Val­ley Nation­al Park, between Stolzen­hagen and Gellmers­dorf, the Low­er Oder Val­ley Nation­al Park Foun­da­tion estab­lished a so-called agro­forestry cul­ture on its own land in the last few days. 62 trees were plant­ed in wide rows on 6 hectares of arable land: 44 chest­nuts, 11 wild ser­vice berries and 7 hazel trees, so-called cli­­mate-sta­ble valu­able woods. The aim of this field tri­al is to test an agri­cul­ture that will also be pos­si­ble and pro­duc­tive in the future in view of falling rain­fall and ris­ing tem­per­a­tures in the east of Bran­den­burg. Cli­mate change pos­es enor­mous, unfore­see­able chal­lenges for agri­cul­ture and forestry, espe­cial­ly in the new fed­er­al states. We have to try new solu­tions. That’s why the Bran­den­burg Acad­e­my at Criewen Cas­tle also prob­a­bly from 29th to April 30, 2021 an inter­na­tion­al sci­en­tif­ic con­gress on the sub­ject of ” Nec­es­sary adap­ta­tions of agri­cul­ture and forestry to cli­mate change — agro­forestry mea­sures and orchards “.

The trees are plant­ed in such a way that the farmer can con­tin­ue to work as usu­al with his pre­vi­ous machine park. We hope that the com­bi­na­tion of trees on agri­cul­tur­al land will result in:

  1. Sus­tain­able secure yields through improve­ment of the micro­cli­mate (pro­tec­tion against extreme cli­mat­ic influences)
  2. Ero­sion pro­tec­tion, reduc­tion of nitrate leach­ing and soil com­paction as well as pro­tec­tion of the organ­ic mat­ter of the soil
  3. In the long term, in addi­tion to the field crop, there is also a yield of valu­able hard­woods that can be used economically
  4. Appre­ci­a­tion of the landscape
  5. Increase in biodiversity

Agro­forestry sys­tems are under dis­cus­sion and on the rise. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, there has not yet been any pub­lic fund­ing for this. We are doing pio­neer­ing work on behalf of the oth­er farms. This is also one of the tasks of the Nation­al Park Foun­da­tion. Every­one can of course look at the plant­i­ngs alone. If you would like a pro­fes­sion­al intro­duc­tion, please con­tact our man­ag­ing direc­tor, Mr. Michael (Tel .: 03332/219824, ).

Dr. Ans­gar Vössing
Foun­da­tion chairman