(29 Jul 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Potsdam, Germany – 25 July 2024
1. Wide of Sanssouci palace
2. Tree stump
3. Tree branch lying on the ground
4. SOUNDBITE (German) Sven Kerschek, Former chief gardener of the Sanssouci park:
++PART COVERED BY SHOTS 3-14
“Since 2017/18, we have noticed that the trees here have changed. Very, very radically and very quickly. They are sicker in appearance, are dying more, have thinner crowns. The shrubs are also suffering very, very badly from the drought. It would be too simple to say that it’s only because of lack of precipitation, it is much more complex. It would be too simple to say that it’s only because of a lack of precipitation, it is much more complex. It’s about solar radiation, about humidity. Of course it’s about precipitation, but it’s also about groundwater levels and storms. And all of this means that we unfortunately have to realise that some of our trees are simply sick and dying in our garden today. Our greatest hope is that the trees will develop themselves here in the garden, that they will self-seed and that we will really try to continue working with the genetic material we have here, so that this work of art, the garden, doesn’t change too much."
5. Dead tree with branches cut out
6. Fallen tree branch
7. Cut tree trunk
8. Kerschek pointing at trees
9. Wide of garden
10. Woman walking with dog
11. Burnt out leaves
12. Tree with dried out branch
13. Tree with red ribbon, Sanssouci palace in the background
14. Wide of Sanssouci gardens
STORYLINE:
The avenues, monuments and gardens in the park surrounding Sanssouci Palace, a sprawling green oasis in the heart of the German city of Potsdam and a UNESCO world heritage site, look as magnificent as ever.
But a closer look shows that all is not well with the park’s trees, which increasingly are struggling with the effects of climate change.
Among the signs are beech trees with thinning crowns, big branches that have crashed to the ground and trunks with much of their bark peeled off.
“Since 2017/18, we have noticed that the trees here have changed very, very radically and very quickly,” says Sven Kerschek, a former chief gardener for part of the park.
“They are sicker in appearance, they are dying more, they have thinner crowns. The shrubs are also suffering very, very badly from the drought.”
The region experienced a particularly hot and dry summer in 2018, followed by several more years with little rain. Comparatively wet summers last year and this year haven’t made up for their effects.
Heat and a lack of rain aren’t the only problems, Kerschek says: “It is much more complex.”
Well-watered trees standing on the banks of streams and lakes also show signs of stress. Constant harsh sunlight, a lack of atmospheric humidity, storms, increasing fungal infections and the spread of insect species that didn’t previously occur in the area are among other factors that play a part.
From 2002 until 2015, the park lost between 18 and 87 trees every year. The number hasn’t dropped below 100 since; it reached 315 in 2020 before falling back somewhat.
The Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation, which oversees Sanssouci Park and many other sites in Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg, is telling the story of the trees’ struggle with climate change in an open-air exhibition this summer, titled “Re:Generation.”
At points around the park, visitors can see examples of the problems and ideas for how they might be tackled.
Those trees give the gardeners reason to hope.
AP video shot by Pietro De Cristofaro
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