© dpa
Holiday swimming courses for around 6,500 children
More than 6,500 children in Berlin learned to swim or improved their swimming skills in intensive courses during the school holidays this year. more
© dpa
500,000 young deciduous trees are to be planted in Berlin's forests this autumn.
Mainly oaks, beeches, hornbeams, lime trees, elms and maples are to be planted, as the Senate Department for the Environment and Climate Protection announced in response to a dpa request. The plantings are part of the so-called mixed forest programme, which was launched in 2012. Since then, according to the administration, around four million young native deciduous trees have been planted. This corresponds to a good 100 hectares of mixed forest.
The aim of the programme is to make the forest more climate-resistant. To this end, pine forests are being converted into mixed deciduous forests, which should, among other things, increase the forest's resistance to fires and improve the water balance. Almost one fifth of Berlin is forested.
After a slight improvement in 2021, the condition of the forest had deteriorated again last year. 40 per cent of the forest trees in the state of Berlin, especially pines and oaks, had shown significant damage, the Forest Condition Report 2022 stated. The proportion of healthy trees had continued to decline, according to the information. This year's inventory to record the condition of the forest has not yet been completed, the environmental administration announced. The results are to be published in December.