Tag Archives: Easterode

Billion-dollar business with minimum wage: The social and environmental costs of the drywall boom

By | September 29, 2026
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Where orchids once grew: Rump & Salzmann open-cast mine. Credits: Pugnalom

COMMENTARY The boom in drywall construction using gypsum plasterboard is closely linked to precarious working conditions, the use of unskilled labor at low wages, and the rapid expansion of natural gypsum mining in ecologically sensitive regions such as the gypsum karst landscape south of the Harz Mountains. While the major building materials companies Knauf, Saint-Gobain, and Casea generate billions in profits from this raw material, which is extracted from the landscape practically free of charge, and… Read more »

A quality seal for hiking in a depleted landscape: On karst trails and the gypsum industry – a commentary

By | September 24, 2026
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Quality and wonderful? Exploitation along the way. Credits: pugnalom

The Karst Trail, marked practically everywhere south of the Harz Mountains by signs with a red and white background "K", is now being advertised on the association's flyers as a "Quality Trail" of the German Hiking Association. The town and tourism association are using the seal to convey to interested visitors to the region: The trails marked in this way offer hiking bliss in unique natural surroundings; habitats are respected here. In reality, however, they are… Read more »

From protected area to blasting zone: Rump & Salzmann swaps nature conservation signs for forest warning signs – a commentary

By | July 24, 2026
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At the foot of the Blossenberg: R&S replaces nature reserve signs with warning signs about falling branches. Credits: pugnalom

It happened without much fanfare: One by one, the signs in the gypsum karst landscape nature reserve near Ührde disappeared – signs that, among other things, prohibited visitors from disturbing plants and animals or leaving the paths – and just as quietly, the mining company Rump & Salzmann replaced them with signs warning of falling branches. Mind you: These are still… Read more »

Shredded hedgerows in the nature reserve: Göttingen district disregards its own conservation obligations

By | March 3, 2026
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Destruction instead of care: Use of flail mowers in the Gipskarst nature reserve: Credits: Pugnalom

Crime scene: gypsum karst landscape nature reserve near Ührde. Once again, approximately 600 meters of hedgerow vegetation were cut with a flail mower, this time along a hiking trail across the Rötzel stream. The use of flail mowers on hedgerow vegetation in a nature reserve is hardly justifiable from either a technical or ethical standpoint, because it destroys precisely those structures that protected areas are meant to preserve. Where branches and shoots are cut across the entire area… Read more »

Tree care companies that prune trees: Expertise versus business? – a commentary

By | February 9, 2026
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Tree topping: Pro Baum GmbH Göttingen in action. Credits: Pugnalom by Lab News Media LLC

Those who love city trees must defend them against their supposed "friends"—that is, against those companies that present themselves as tree specialists while simultaneously doing exactly what modern tree care clearly classifies as harmful: topping and radical crown mutilation. Because what is sold as "rejuvenation" or "preservation" is in reality the beginning of a slow, gradual tree death that takes years, but is technically… Read more »

Gypsum karst: Osterode am Harz subsidizes multi-billion-dollar corporations – a commentary

By | February 4, 2026
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Worst whitewash: CASEA poster at Schachtrupp villa Credits: LabNews Media LLC

Osterode am Harz lies on the edge of Central Europe's most important gypsum karst region, designated by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation as biodiversity hotspot No. 18 ("Southern Harz Zechstein Belt, Kyffhäuser and Hainleite") – one of only 30 "treasure troves of nature" in Germany. This unique karst landscape with caves, sinkholes, dolines, karst springs, and a high density of endangered species is massively threatened by mining… Read more »

Osterode am Harz: Another violation of the Federal Nature Conservation Act

By | July 23, 2025
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Credits: Pugnalom

In Osterode am Harz, Göttingen district, Section 39 of the Federal Nature Conservation Act (BNatSchG) has been violated again: An area of ​​approximately 4.100 square meters between Seesener Straße and the Schachtrupp villa was completely cleared of bushes. Section 39 of the Federal Nature Conservation Act prohibits the severe pruning or felling of hedges, living fences, bushes, and other woody plants between March 1st and September 30th. [ Continue reading »]

Between knowledge, will and action: Only consistency can save us – a commentary

By | March 24, 2025
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Credits: j.mt_photography, pexels

The discrepancy between theoretical pronouncements on combating climate change and biodiversity loss and actual activities is striking and worrying. On the one hand, surveys and studies show a growing awareness of the urgency of these problems. According to the Global Carbon Budget 2024, global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and cement reached a new record high of 37,4 billion tons in 2024… Read more »

Osterode: Large-scale clearing of trees and shrubs again

By | March 11, 2025
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Trees and bushes razed to the ground

Location: Area between the Imperial Palace, Seesener Straße, and Dörgestraße, near the Schachtrupp villa. Area: approx. 5.100 sq m. The facts: Regeneration to its original ecological status takes decades – until then, the habitat for the established species is lost: Depending on the site conditions, the grass and herbaceous layer can recover within three to six years, provided the seed banks in the soil… Read more »

Göttingen district: Field trees cleared again

By | February 16, 2025
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Credits: pugnalom

(Comment) Hedgerows – whether as boundaries between fields, along streams, or as interludes in monocultures – are landscape features worthy of protection and are indeed protected. Often, however, this protection exists only on paper: Under the guise of maintenance, they are frequently pruned drastically and without expertise, or, as in this example near Dorste/Osterode district, completely destroyed. The vegetation at a… Read more »