BAD MUSKAU: In the castle gardens of Muskauer Park, which straddles both banks of the German-Polish river border, caretakers have mounted a fightback against the impacts of climate change.

On the stump of a 150-year-old oak tree, gnawed by parasites and felled in a storm, a tender new shoot represents the estate’s hope of adapting to rising temperatures and more frequent droughts.

As part of a “natural regeneration” project, the sapling was grafted onto its fallen predecessor by gardeners in the first step towards replacing the Unesco-listed park’s lost trees.

The young oak “will benefit from the roots of the old tree and will be more resistant to threats”, gardener Jana Kretschmer said. By transmitting their DNA to the new saplings, the older trees “teach” their descendants how to adapt to less hospitable conditions. “Nature shows the way, humans need only look on,” said Kretschmer.

Drought and pests are among the silent killers encouraged by climate change, which weakens plants and has started to decimate the flora of the parklands on both sides of the Neisse river.

Some 180 beeches, ashes and oaks had to be felled there last year. “Every year since 2018 we have to cut down more and more trees,” said Kretschmer, the site’s deputy manager, who bemoaned the loss of countless old trees as a “catastrophe”.

In June, 15 German estates presented their plans to protect their gardens against the impacts of climate change. At Muskauer Park, the groundskeepers are betting on the traditional method of natural regeneration to increase the tree-count.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2024