Titi des Bouvrie is gold for the Haarlemmerhout

By Willem Brand

During a separate gathering with a group of forest friends, Titi was serenaded to the tune of ‘Opzij, Zij, Zij’ by Herman van Veen. “The blackberries have to go, the bulbs have to go back, we keep working and Titi is the boss. Your attention to the Wood, the coffee you brew, you give us inspiration, you are Gold.”

“You give us inspiration, you are Gold”

Friends of the Haarlemmerhout

A bizarre plan – namely placing containment barriers on walking paths – led to Titi des Bouvrie founding the Friends of Haarlemmerhout association together with Mechteld Sloet in 2009. “Our aim is to protect the oldest urban forest in the Netherlands, a green national monument.”

Advisory committee

Titi has been capturing many beautiful things from her ‘backyard’ all year round for fifteen years. On paper as secretary of the association, but especially on photo.

Des Bouvrie also formed the basis of the Haarlemmerhout and Frederikspark Advisory Committee. However, Titi does much more than report. Together with other volunteers, she keeps the city forest clean and clears it of overgrown blackberry bushes.

Tree inscription

The association’s logo became a heart that Titi discovered in the bark of one of the beech trees in section 28. Although Titi disapproves of every carving action with ‘We don’t scratch trees’, when the beech fell on February 22, 2024, she asked Jelle Copijn from the company Copijn Boomspecialisten to saw the logo out of the trunk. “Jelle brought that block to my house that same day. The reason was that the heart had now become the logo of the Friends of the Haarlemmerhout.”