Biosphere Fruit Trees

Since 2015, the sponsoring association of the Berchtesgadener Land Biosphere Region e.V. has annually called for the Biosphere Fruit Tree Campaign. With the help of the state LNPR funding, interested parties are provided with various fruit trees along with planting material.

The following criteria, among others, must be met in order to receive funding:

• The planting area must be located outside of villages or cities – an exception are large orchards that characterize the village. It may not be used as a garden or fenced in with the exception of agricultural fences that are common in the area.
• Eligible are only suitable, traditional, and if possible, regional high trunk apple, pear, plum, sweet cherry, sour cherry and walnut trees.
• The distance between the trees must be sufficiently large, 10 to 12 meters for apple, pear, cherry trees, 6 to 8 meters for plum trees and 15 meters for walnut trees.
• Plantations of 5 trees or more are funded.
• The planting of fruit treees must make sense from a nature conservation point of view – exclusion factors are waterlogged or boggy soils and cold air sites.
• The planting work and subsequent care is the responsibility of the respective owner or tenant of the property.
• Planting must be done in a wire basket and protected against browsing by game.
• The measure must be voluntary; there can be no planting obligation, such as compensatory measures as part of a construction project.
•  The property owner must sign a declaration of consent.
• There is an earmarking period of 5 years, during which the fruit trees must be permanently maintained and any trees that have failed must be replanted.
• During the earmarking period, other funding, e.g. through agri-environmental programs, is not possible.

The announcement of the start of the annual fruit tree campaign is made in the fall via local media. Distribution of the fruit trees takes place in the following spring.

If you are interested, you can contact Josef Stein, District Specialist Advisor for Horticulture and Landscape Management in the Berchtesgadener Land District Office at Josef.Stein@lra-bgl.de or Sabine Pinterits from the Biosphere Region Administration Office at Sabine.Pinterits@reg-ob.bayern.de.