*** Station Mail is for the information of Station Members only, but Station Mail has given up copyright & can be freely circulated. For administrative reasons, comments from outsiders are usually not entertained & may be circulated within our system locally & overseas.***
Dear Station Members,
Just one more Station Mail before Hawaii.
The Station Manager drove passed this site yesterday & saw a bunch of landscaping workers busy digging with hand tools & excavator to churn the 1 ft. topsoil upside down, & raked anything in the way for collection as garbage in storage bags for disposal.
Upon asking what they were doing, the workers replied that they were told to carry out 'Cultivation' as required in their landscape contract. It was said that the 'Cultivation' was absolutely necessary to loosen & aerate the soil to avoid 'compaction'. When it was examined what kind of debris would be removed from the 'compacted' soil in the storage bags, over 90% of them were tree roots. The roots of the mature trees underneath were matting to form an extensive network at the 1 ft. topsoil for water & nutrients absorption, & they were treated as debris during the so-called 'Cultivation' process. They were cut, grabbed & pulled out in a genocide fashion for the purpose of 'Aeration'.
It is known to Arborists all around the world that the Absorbing Roots of a mature tree would grow & mat the 1 ft. topsoil in most places. Absorbing roots are also Primary Growth which would not regenerate upon damage & would simply die. If a mature tree would lose too many absorbing roots for water & nutrient uptake, being senile, it would lose vigour quickly & may not be able to generate new roots quick enough to support all the living functions of the canopy above. What the mature tree may do is to divert energy reserves within cells to compensate root loss, at the expense of the defence mechanism. If pathogens nearby could take this opportunity to invade the weakened tree at the many wounds inflicted during 'Cultivation', depending on its energy reserve & vigour, the mature tree may not be able to compartmentalize adequately & would be attacked by pathogens.
When so happened, dieback & internal decay may happen. Internal cracks & cankers may develop. The tree may try to fight back by adding more compartmentalization, burning up remaining energy reserves up to a point. Then if incorrect pruning like Lion-Tailing or Topping would happen at the same time during 'Cultivation', the tree may not be able to replace its energy loss & may decide to give up of some of its boundaries to pathogens for co-existence. This compromise may persist for a few years. Then a storm may come & break off the tree at its weakest parts, & perhaps hit somebody or a car passing by.
Then can we call this Tree Failure an 'Act of God' ?
The Certified Arborist acting as Expert Witness in Court certainly would not. If a tree within a managed domain has been tampered with horticultural practice, the Tree Failure would not be regarded as an 'Act of God' in most Western Courts. It would simply be a Civil Negligence or a Tort. The tree owner may be responsible for the action.
Somehow our territory has mixed up practices of Horticulture with that of Arboriculture. Some horticultural experts would regard their practices on shrubs & herbs would be equally applicable to trees. If they were right, ISA would not need to start in 1924 & the 20,000 Certified Arborists around the world would be out of a job. The hundreds of Govt bodies, Universities & Research Institutes around the world would be wasting time & money to study trees & tree care. Our Station would simply pack up & go home, & would not grow to the size of today. Tree Care is a specialist subject.
Trees are the tallest & longest living creatures in this planet. They were there long before humans learned to walk (for 200 million years) & modern civilization could not exist without trees. Trees dominate the forests & would determine the smaller plants underneath to survive or not. Tree Care can not be compared with that of the smaller plants.
Knowing all these, do we reckon we would need Arborists to look after our trees? Or would we prefer to see Veterinary Surgeons operate on humans in our hospital ?
best regards,
Sammy Au
Station Manager
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
ISA HK/China --- Tree planting to curb air pollution in HK
*** Station Mail is for the information of Station Members only, but Station Mail has given up copyright & can be freely circulated. For administrative reasons, comments from outsiders are usually not entertained & may be circulated within our system locally & overseas.***
Dear Station Members,
The Chief Executive (CE) of the HKSAR Govt, His Excellency Mr. Donald Tsang, has recently spoken out about his desire to 'restore our Blue Sky with a magic stick' in view of our current air pollution. Details of his interview in Chinese can be visited at:
http://hk.news.yahoo.com/070720/60/2byrn.html
Although the result of our current air pollution is complex & would require the cooperation of our Chinese neighbours up north, there is at least one thing our Govt can do to ease the situation in our city area within our ability --- by installing Urban Trees properly.
One of the benefits of trees is trapping air pollutants in their foliage & bark, besides absorbing heat, providing shade & supplying oxygen. Western cities including Singapore have recognized these benefits years ago & they have implemented massive Tree Planting in their Greenery Program, not just for ' flowering' like China & HK emphasized so much upon, but environmental & ecological benefits as given in research. Just visit any successful Western city in Europe, America, Australia, NZ & Singapore, & check out their Tree Planting. Are their trees like ours especially in terms of structure & performance? The facts have spoken for themselves.
Another important issue our CE has mentioned is that he has encouraged our Civil Servants ' to break away from old thinking, & to openly discuss & listen to the public during policy making & resolution'. This is an excellent comment indeed so pleased to be heard by all of us, because this would mean our current Govt will no longer work like the old one making unilateral decisions without participation of public & would force-feed those policies in the hope that they would be acceptable & admired by the receptors. Hasn't HK had enough of these in the past 10 years? Otherwise, there would not be half a million protesters marching out on street in July 2005.
When it comes to Tree planting, the issue of proper Tree Care can not be ignored, because if a tree is not selected, installed, maintained & inspected properly, it will eventually become more a liability rather than an asset to our society. Just look at the number of Tree Failures in our city in the past few years. We have perhaps lost more trees in a month after typhoons in Aug 2006 in the thousands, than Singapore would have lost in total since Singapore became a nation from the 1960's. Something must have gone wrong with our mature trees & it would be difficult to imagine how happy the public would accept that. Changes in our old practices need to happen if our CE's words are correct.
ISA may have arrived in our region just a little too late. After developing in advanced nations for years, our Station has finally invited ISA to land in HK with their international connection & expertise, & it looks like ISA is here to stay, despite opposition. Because if not, ISA would simply divert the resources to our neighbours like Taiwan & China, & help them there. It is a free world for ISA indeed & the choice is on their hands.
If so happened, wouldn't it be hard then for us to swallow if we were to be taught ISA by our brothers & sisters from around with perhaps their half-English, whereas we would continue to be proud of our old practices to invite more Tree Failures in time to come ??
It appears that the choice is apparently ours.
best regards,
Sammy Au
Station Manager
Dear Station Members,
The Chief Executive (CE) of the HKSAR Govt, His Excellency Mr. Donald Tsang, has recently spoken out about his desire to 'restore our Blue Sky with a magic stick' in view of our current air pollution. Details of his interview in Chinese can be visited at:
http://hk.news.yahoo.com/070720/60/2byrn.html
Although the result of our current air pollution is complex & would require the cooperation of our Chinese neighbours up north, there is at least one thing our Govt can do to ease the situation in our city area within our ability --- by installing Urban Trees properly.
One of the benefits of trees is trapping air pollutants in their foliage & bark, besides absorbing heat, providing shade & supplying oxygen. Western cities including Singapore have recognized these benefits years ago & they have implemented massive Tree Planting in their Greenery Program, not just for ' flowering' like China & HK emphasized so much upon, but environmental & ecological benefits as given in research. Just visit any successful Western city in Europe, America, Australia, NZ & Singapore, & check out their Tree Planting. Are their trees like ours especially in terms of structure & performance? The facts have spoken for themselves.
Another important issue our CE has mentioned is that he has encouraged our Civil Servants ' to break away from old thinking, & to openly discuss & listen to the public during policy making & resolution'. This is an excellent comment indeed so pleased to be heard by all of us, because this would mean our current Govt will no longer work like the old one making unilateral decisions without participation of public & would force-feed those policies in the hope that they would be acceptable & admired by the receptors. Hasn't HK had enough of these in the past 10 years? Otherwise, there would not be half a million protesters marching out on street in July 2005.
When it comes to Tree planting, the issue of proper Tree Care can not be ignored, because if a tree is not selected, installed, maintained & inspected properly, it will eventually become more a liability rather than an asset to our society. Just look at the number of Tree Failures in our city in the past few years. We have perhaps lost more trees in a month after typhoons in Aug 2006 in the thousands, than Singapore would have lost in total since Singapore became a nation from the 1960's. Something must have gone wrong with our mature trees & it would be difficult to imagine how happy the public would accept that. Changes in our old practices need to happen if our CE's words are correct.
ISA may have arrived in our region just a little too late. After developing in advanced nations for years, our Station has finally invited ISA to land in HK with their international connection & expertise, & it looks like ISA is here to stay, despite opposition. Because if not, ISA would simply divert the resources to our neighbours like Taiwan & China, & help them there. It is a free world for ISA indeed & the choice is on their hands.
If so happened, wouldn't it be hard then for us to swallow if we were to be taught ISA by our brothers & sisters from around with perhaps their half-English, whereas we would continue to be proud of our old practices to invite more Tree Failures in time to come ??
It appears that the choice is apparently ours.
best regards,
Sammy Au
Station Manager
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