"Equestrian sport is at home in the green".
Forest walk with Philipp Freiherr von Heereman
Close to its origin, agriculture, is equestrian sport in Riesenbeck. The equestrian center Riesenbeck International is located at the edge of one of Philipp Freiherr Heereman woods and offers a lot of green, large lawns for riding and letting the sport horses graze. Protecting this green, this nature, is the central task of society in the here and now. This is also emphasized by Philipp Freiherr Heereman during a walk through the forest adjacent to the equestrian center.
The forest binds carbon and produces oxygen. It is thus of paramount importance in efforts to combat climate change, which is literally fueled by massive carbon dioxide emissions. But the tree population around the Surenburg moated castle is struggling. Since 2018, there has actually been consistently too little rain and thus too little water in the deeper layers of the soil. The bark beetle, for example, can only get at trees that are still alive because they lack water. The tree's self-protection mechanism, which is designed to make an intruder such as the bark beetle stick to the tree with a resin drop and thus render it harmless, no longer works. This is because the tree lacks the water to produce a resin drop.
"Such pests also have a very easy game, the more homogeneous the tree population is," Philipp Freiherr von Heereman knows. Even though it is convenient for the clearing, i.e. "harvesting" of trees for humans, if many trees of the same species are sown at the same time, a change in thinking must now take place. "We need a mix now," explains Philipp Freiherr von Heereman. Spruces, for example, are particularly vulnerable to water shortages, while oaks and beeches are more robust. With careful forestry management, Philipp Freiherr von Heereman's family wants to equip its forests against climate change while also ensuring profitability. Trees also have to bring in money, in the form of building material, for example. The von Heereman family's trees already do more than that. In the form of wood chips, they heat Surenburg Castle as well as the Parkhotel with its adjacent forest. "So this is CO2-neutral, carbon that was once bound by the forest is released again when it is burned," says Philipp Freiherr von Heereman. The circle is closed.
He sees the new stop of the Longines Global Champions Tour in Riesenbeck as an equally rounded affair. "Equestrian sport is at home in the green, that's where it comes from. Riesenbeck now opens the green gate again, and both the horses and the spectators actually long to be here in the green when they see equestrian sport," finds Philipp Freiherr von Heereman. And so far, the riders also feel very much at home in Riesenbeck's dense greenery.
