Squirrel Forest Campaign in Wildpark, Hanau

- Sabine Scholl explains -

Not only jays and squirrels are experts when it comes to hiding and burying acorns. As part of Hanau’s school holiday games programme 23 children from Hanau sowed acorns in the Wildpark’s ‘Alte Fasanerie’ ."At last a job that’s fun” was the unanimous opinion of these eager 8 to 10-year-old girls and boys.

First everyone in the group searched the spacious Wildpark for healthy and undamaged acorns. “No easy task because the acorn harvest is really poor this year,” commented Sabine Scholl, head of the Forest Museum. “The majority of the oak trees in the Wildpark are turkey oaks whose acorns are parasitized by gall wasps. These so-called knopper galls can be recognized by their round protuberances or knobs. Unfortunately they can no longer germinate,” Ms Scholl continued. All the more reason for the young forest and nature enthusiasts to search very carefully.

- oldtime seed sower -

Then the children eagerly sowed a mixture of red oak, truffle oak and turkey oak acorns under old conifers. Forest Officer Friedel Wenzel, a colleague at the Forest Museum in Wildpark, showed the children various techniques and tools from the last century. These included an old seed sower. The tree seeds tumbled safely and easily into the mineral soil through a hollow stick which was stuck into the ground. Next year the group want to come back to see if their seeds really have germinated.

We would like to thank Sabine Scholl and Friedel Wenzel and, of course, the children for their endeavours and will be interested to hear what they have to say next year about how their tree seeds have developed.