Lecture by forest engineer Christoph Michels: “Our park trees between climate stress and heritage protection”
On 2 June at 6.30 pm, forest engineer and author Christoph Michels will give a lecture on trees at Villa Hügel. Entitled ‘Our park trees between climate stress and heritage protection,’ Michels will highlight the significance of tree populations in historical parks as part of our cultural heritage, whilst also focusing on Hügel Park. The lecture is free of charge. Registration is required and opens on March 24 at 6 pm.
With their exceptional tree populations, historical parks are not merely sites of nature, but living cultural heritage. At the same time, trees are facing increasing pressure. Climate change and the effects of globalisation, with their extreme weather conditions and a multitude of pests and diseases, raise fundamental questions for historical parks: Which tree populations can and must be preserved? Where are changes inevitable? And how can a park’s cultural identity be preserved when its tree population undergoes fundamental change? Aspects of heritage protection law also play a central role in these considerations.
Christoph Michels’s lecture addresses these questions, linking the historical and cultural significance of trees with ecological imperatives and the perspectives of heritage conservation law.
The Hügel Park, with its 7,000 trees and 120 tree species, serves as a reference point for a discussion of the factors that must be taken into account when making decisions regarding the long-term preservation of historic tree populations.
Christoph Michels
Christoph Michels is a chartered forest engineer and author. Among other responsibilities, he manages the Winnenthal forest district. His book “Starke Bäume in Nordrhein-Westfalen” (Strong Trees in North Rhine-Westphalia) was published in 2021; it documents 267 ancient trees in North Rhine-Westphalia and combines forestry expertise with cultural-historical narratives. His aim is to raise awareness of the value of old trees – beyond their purely economic benefits.