Wednesday, January 21, 2009

ISA HK/China --- Happy Lunar New Year of the Ox

Dear Station Members,

ISA HK/China wises all of you a Happy Lunar New Year to come. May the Year of the Ox bring you all Good Luck & Success for whatever you do & live. Please view the following link for our e-card:

http://ecards.myfuncards.com/myfuncards/RetrieveCard.jhtml?c=zm983OYLwXRg9Cym-XXfFGJaRu7zlmWPslU-vMHtDg9rec4m6IYDjvOWvY_Zgiud

As our territory now is facing a possible economic slump with the media painting depressive forecast from time to time, it should be no time for despair but to stand up to face the challenge with courage & bravery. Our territory, especially HK, has met many ups & downs in the past decades & it was through flexibility & hard work that we have overcome struggles. ISA HK/China wishes our Station Members to take the same courage to face our current difficulties & would smile it out as we all grind along.

Being trained & educated by deep British gentlemenship when he was young in the UK, the Station Manager has remembered this traditional British song called "Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag" & wish to share it with our Station Members in our current time of difficulties:

Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile, smile, smile,While you’ve a Lucifer to light your fag,
Smile, boys, that’s the style.What’s the use of worrying?
It never was worthwhile,
soPack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile, smile, smile.

This song may be searched in the internet for its full lyrics & tune. It was sung by British soldiers marching to the front during the First World War amidst uncertainties.

May the spirit of those British 'old boys' enlighten us in our own journey forward, to ignore difficulties & maintain optimism in whatever we do ahead.

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

Sunday, January 18, 2009

ISA HK/China --- China Tree News (Mature Tree Inspection in Tangshan)

*** Our weekly 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. Please note Station Mail is sometimes given in Blog at http://isahkchina.blogspot.com , although images are usually not attached due to size. ***

Dear Station Members,

The attached newspaper cutting from a national press in China has given the latest insight as to how China Tree Experts would carry out Tree Inspection in their own way as compared to ISA Arboriculture nowadays.

As the report would describe, a Beijing Professor with a group of experts were called in by a client to examine a 300 year old pine tree in Tangshan City. The experts have studied the tree from top to bottom structurally & have carefully assessed the growing environment around the ailing tree. It was discovered that the tree has suffered from abiotic stresses from construction damage as well as mechanical injury from visiting tourists. The tree was further examined for cracks & cavities, & the soil compaction was examined. Even the suspected lightning injury was carefully looked at & all measurements were recorded for writing up an Arborist Report for future uses.

On the 25 years that the Station Manager has been studying China publication on Tree Care, this is the first time he has seen a Tree Assessment Report so closely compared to ISA education. Although an individual event as such does not remark Modern Arboriculture has now landed in the Land of Old Dragons which has a size bigger than the US, it is however true that someone there has begun to practice Tree Care in a scientific manner outside the traditional manner of sentiment & aesthetics alone. We can regard this as a marked improvement in China for their Tree Experts to move closer to ISA & the rest of the world in their Tree Care Practice.

China is no doubt in every way trying to put herself on track with the rest of the world in pursue of knowledge. This should also be true for Tree Care. ISA can add fuel to China to achieve this noble objective to help them grow better trees to benefit their communities, under the quiet & constant push of ISA HK/China, one tree at a time.

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

"Trees are good for the community. Trees need care like human beings. Arborists are the Tree Care Professionals."