New tree planting campaign on golf courses
The first goal is to plant 5,000 trees: on April 1, the three golf courses Gut Apeldör , Golf Moorfleet and Red Golf Quickborn will start a three-year campaign with which they want to actively contribute to reforestation in Germany. From then on, the operators pay one euro from each green fee round to the climate protection partner Plant-My-Tree, which carries out the reforestation on a five-hectare area in Bokhorst in Schleswig-Holstein.
Golf is a conscious approach to nature
“Together we can achieve a lot,” say the initiators Peter Merck, Dieter Worms and Kai Flint, who are counting on being able to do something with the community of golfers to prevent the forest from dying. “But we don’t just want to plant trees in Paraguay, we want to plant trees here in Germany,” explains Dieter Worms, who also hopes that both golfers and non-golfers will understand “how consciously golf deals with nature.”
The aim of the project is also that other golf courses join the campaign in order to increase the number of trees planted each year. Worms, Merck and Flint currently expect to be able to purchase around 1,700 trees for the area each year through the donation from the three golf courses. Red oak, pedunculate oak, Douglas fir or alder are the main species selected, so that together with other varieties, a high-quality mixed forest is created in the end, which is also able to cope with the demands of climate change.
“You are a member of a golf club. We are the operators of three golf courses that take care of nature, treat it in an environmentally friendly way and want to do good in this special situation – together with you!” is the appeal that is now being sent to all players in Gut Apeldör, Golf Moorfleet and Red Golf Quickborn. Dieter Worms thinks, that the more golf courses in Germany that take part in the campaign, the better. 5000 trees in three years should just be the beginning.
Photos: Stefan von Stengel/PLANT MY TREE
