Farmers are destroying nature
Farmers destroy Natura 2000 site. Stroe This is a plot of land of some 720 square meters, which a group of farmers has ploughed and fertilized without permission.
A group of farmers destroyed a Natura 2000 protected area near the Gelderland town of Stroe on Monday evening. This confirms the Forestry Administration following reports from Omroep Gelderland. It concerns a piece of vulnerable nature reserve of about 720 square meters , about a tenth of a football field. Farmers ploughed and fertilized that without permission. State Forestry Administration to Report Destruction.
The land is part of a large Natura 2000 area of 10,000 hectares that consists mostly of forest, says “disappointed” ranger Laurens Jansen. According to him, the soil is “not super vulnerable”, so the damage can be overlooked. However, Jansen is about the idea. “We are trying to protect our nature against nitrogen and ammonia. The manure is also an unnecessary extra load of that.”
After the destruction, the farmers drove from Stroe to former Radio Kootwijk broadcasting station in the Veluwe, reports Staatsbosbeheer. The nature manager granted the farmers' procession permission to take pictures at the monumental building. According to the Barneveld Newspaper, it concerned a group of about twenty tractors, preceded by a dairy farmer from Stroe. According to various local media, the farmers were motivated by the idea that State Forestry Administration does not perform its tasks properly. A farmer told the Barneveld Newspaper that farmers are “blamed for everything”, but that nitrogen in nature reserves mainly comes from planes and cars. That's not right: agriculture is responsible for around 60 percent of the total nitrogen emissions in the Netherlands, according to research firm TNO.
