The City of Neuchâtel is one of the urban municipalities in Switzerland which has one of the largest forests, including that of Chaumont. In order to promote biodiversity, it has decided to offer individuals, companies or associations the possibility of sponsoring “habitat trees” in the forest.
“The habitat trees are not maintained and we let nature take its course. Mushrooms and moss thrive there. They are in a very quiet area where no one disturbs them and therefore no maintenance is required,” declared Gaël Müller Heyraud, municipal landscape architect, in an interview with Keystone-ATS.
The tree will die little by little, but by feeding wood-eating insects or creating hiding places for birds or small mammals.
Since the sponsorship action began in 2010, 122 trees have been sponsored, at a cost of 500 francs per unit. The money collected helps maintain the forest.
“Some would like to give us a tree to plant, but we prefer not. In town, we do not like to put commemorative plaques at the foot of trees, because we would have too many and it would become very difficult for maintenance,” added Gaël Müller Heyraud.
Small groves
Some individuals do this gesture during the birth of a child. However, the City was a pioneer in setting up, every year for 25 years, the planting of a tree for each birth in the town. Since the merger, around 350 to 400 oaks have been planted this way each year.
The “forest is immense in Neuchâtel,” explained Gaël Müller Heyraud with 808 hectares bordering the city. This is without counting the 763 hectares that the commune owns in Ponts-de-Martel and the 795 hectares in Serroue since the merger with Corcelles-Cormondrèche, Peseux and Valangin.
“Planting an urban micro-forest does not seem to us to be the most suitable way to increase the tree area on our municipal territory which measures only 500 m between lake and forest. Especially since the Mail forest, for example, is a small urban forest,” explained the landscape architect.
“As part of the future local development plan, we find it very important to preserve and promote groves and to network vegetated structures such as hedges, parks, gardens,” she said. concluded. /ATS-cob
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