Is it about nitrogen or about reclassification of the Netherlands?

The media, government and nature agencies are full of it. Nitrogen affects nature. Which nature? Do we have untouched nature? All nature reserves in the Netherlands are man-made, so there is no untouched nature. This is how the moors were created by farmers in the past.

The heath is NOT maintained in the Netherlands. In Germany, the Lüneburg Heath is in full bloom and the heath is disappearing here. In the past, farmers maintained the heath by grazing the grounds and cutting off the vegetation to make manure. Now man-made nature has to save itself by doing almost nothing about it. This will never work. The same is: you plant a garden, but do not maintain the garden and let nature take its course. Subsequently, the landscaped garden will look very different after 10 years. The same has happened with our Natura 2000 areas. The farmer was the gardener and has stopped maintaining the garden. The ownership of the Natura 2000 areas has been transferred to our nature authorities and they do very little maintenance. The nature reserves that were kept barren by farmers in the past are no longer kept barren and are being enriched by nitrogen. The farmer is now the perfect scapegoat for this problem.

With maintenance such as plowing or chopping the nature reserves, the nature reserves will deteriorate again, just like in the past. Besides the fact that it is expensive, the nature authorities also want to do this as little as possible, because they say: when we sod the heath, the other minerals, such as potassium, calcium, phosphate and magnesium, disappear in addition to the nitrogen. Remarkable. The same problem that agriculture faces. Only agriculture is labeled as a polluter, because it makes up for this loss of minerals with fertilizers and animal feed. Otherwise, his soil impoverishes.

Apply maintenance to gardens
The nature authorities must also apply the same maintenance in their gardens. They have to maintain their gardens by means of: grazing, sod, burning and chopping. Subsequently, it must be examined which minerals the nature reserve has a deficiency and then targeted additional fertilization with the correct composition of manure types. Nowhere in our politics is this problem mentioned. Just point the finger at the farmers.

Putting money into the maintenance of our landscaped gardens - the Natura 2000 areas - is much cheaper and more effective than buying out our farmers, with all the consequences that entails. Then our Natura 2000 areas will be just as beautiful as the Lüneburg Heath, because in Germany they know that you have to maintain a garden. It is not true that buying out the farmers is not about nitrogen, but about the redevelopment plans of the Netherlands? The major renovation of the Netherlands, written by our minister Hugo de Jonge. A lot of land is needed to realize this. With these nitrogen plans, the government can obtain cheap land to realize this plan. Given the government's determination on the nitrogen plans - that no solution is negotiable - this seems to be the real reason.

Jaap Major
Low Zuthem

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