Demonstrators with texts on banners and placards such as “Our forest, our future”, “Run Forest Run!” or “Tuscany, a gift to speculators – theft from the citizen” loudly march through the town of Traunsee.
The “Forest instead of parking lot” association, headed by chairman Werner Christian Binder, is loudly drawing attention to the planned clearing of the floodplain forest of around 6000m2 in Tuscany Park. About 200 demonstrators, of all generations, marched peacefully, but with a high volume, from the Auwald via the Tuscany parking lot and esplanade to the Schubertplatz next to the Gmunden town hall to tell the councilors that they did not agree with the plans for the destruction.
Werner Christian Binder in his speech: “This is not a grove, but an important point of nature! The media interest shows that it is important to people to preserve such biotopes!” This is proven by the large number of participants.
A resident of Pepöckstraße looks from the balcony at the park, Ort Castle and the forest: “When the clearing is complete, I only see the parking lot with the cars. I prefer the forest to a parking lot!” he emphasizes in an interview.
Quote from the club’s website:
“We demand an immediate stop to the planned clearing in the Auwald area!
For the construction of the parking lot as part of the planned hotel project at Landschloss Ort, there is a risk of irretrievable destruction of the beautiful, natural piece of forest between Tuscany parking lot, Johann Orth – Allee, Pfahlbauweg and access road to the Tuscany Congress building. 5,855m² of forest from the entire 14,378m² area is to be cleared and 227 car parking spaces are to be built for hotel guests. Two entrances and exits lead to the parking lot. The old park area of the forestry school will be removed and reforested. According to the municipality of Gmunden, the cleared forest area in the Traunkirchen area will be reforested 1:1. However, it will take decades for the trees, most of which are hardwood trees, to have the same ecological quality (Co2 storage, effects on the microclimate).”
