ISA HK/China --- RTHK Interview on Recent HK Arboricultural

国内朋友请使用翻译软件阅读本文。
*** 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 or anybody 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 Station Manager (SM) has given an interview at the radio Talk Show of Radio & TV of HK (RTHK) called 'Liberal Wind, Liberal Phone' in Cantonese for about 15 minutes yesterday, to talk about the CA, CTW & IPA credentials & matters concerning the Arboricultural Development in recent HK.

Details of the conversation can be downloaded at http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/radio1/openline_openview/20090331.html for anyone interested.

Please note the skills of the SM in diverting attacks towards Govt Depts in local Tree Affairs during the rather stressed interview.

Assuring you that ISA HK/China will develop in a manner following the Mission of ISA at all times.

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

"If a tree is not designed, installed, maintained & inspected properly, it is likely to become a liability rather than an asset."

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

ISA HK/China --- A study on the Parks and Trees Act (2005) of Singapore

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*** 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 or anybody may not be 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,

In HK for years, Tree Lovers have cried out to demand the legislation of Tree Law to preserve & protect our trees. Some think that with a set of Tree Law in place, our trees will be designed, installed, maintained, inspected & protected properly. Unfortunately over the years, few solid proposals have been put forward as how to draft up such a complicated & important Law. Most appeared to want it out of passion or sentiment, but not knowing the impact of having such a Law in our society.

ISA HK/China has taken a little time to research into a relevant set of such Law in Singapore called the Parks & Trees Act (PTA) of 2005 which may serve as a useful reference for our Tree Lovers. The full contents of the PTA can be downloaded from:

http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/non_version/cgi-bin/cgi_retrieve.pl?actno=REVED-216&doctitle=PARKS%20AND%20TREES%20ACT%0A&date=latest&method=part

The PTA does not appear to be written in difficult legal language. Anyone with reasonable English should be able to understand it with ease. It is +45 pages long, depending on where you would start reading it.

Please note ISA HK/China has only an amateur ability to understand the PTA & please do not take our message as gospels but with your own interpretation. Flexibility must be allowed & contemplation must be given while understanding the PTA for any consideration.

Highlights of our review of this excellent PTA are given below without commitment for sharing with our Station Members:

1. The PTA has a well defined position & hierarchy in the Singapore Greenery System. A Commissioner of Parks & Recreation is appointed by a Minister (Minister of National Development?, as it is not stated in the PTA) to issue working instructions to the National Parks Board (Nparks) which is the leading agency in executing the PTA. Nparks itself is ordained under the National Parks Board Act of 2005 for its functions & duties.

2. Restricted activities in respect of trees, plants, etc. in national parks & nature reserves in Para 8 & 9 of PTA are similar to that of the HK AFCD regulations.

3. Para 13 of PTA has empowered the Minister to designate a Tree Conservation Area anywhere in Singapore if it is 'in the interests of amenity to make provision for the conservation of trees'. Wouldn't the Tree Lovers of HK be overjoyed to hear this if the same would be applied in HK?

4. Para 14 will restrict any Tree Cutting having girth of more than 1m in any vacant land besides in Tree Conservation Area, without approval. There is currently no regulation in HK to prevent cutting trees belonging to private owners in private land no matter what size they may be.

5. Para 15 gives the Commissioner power to serve a Tree Conservation Notice in any vacant land in Singapore ' to maintain or conserve the tree or group of trees' there. There is currently no equivalence of such practice in HK especially for private tree owners.

6. Para 19 requires the Road Authority to consult Nparks before carrying out any work or activities within a Heritage Road Green Buffer. In a way, certain road work can not proceed without agreement of the Greenery Authority in Singapore.

7. Para 20 stipulates the application procedures to cut trees & plants under the PTA. The application is required to be made to the Commissioner ' in such form or manner as may be prescribed '. This clause allows flexibility in the application procedures rather than listing out rigid forms & orders to be filled in, & the application format can change to cope with practical needs. Under section 4b of Para 20, the Commissioner has the right to grant approval 'as he thinks fit'; & under section 5, revocation may be required ' if he is satisfied ....'. This, in a way, is giving authority to the Commissioner the sole power to decide upon any tree cutting application, rather than to consult the many parties or interest groups like in HK. Naturally it is believed that the Commissioner would not grant such approval without consulting expert opinions from Nparks, & Nparks is known to be full of Arborists to look after their trees in Singapore.

8. Para 21 has listed out the requirements in reinstating damaged plantings in the form of Reinstatement Notices by the Commissioner. Section (c) of this Para has given guidelines for restoration as ' to restore any part of the heritage road green buffer to its former state or, if such restoration is not reasonably practicable or is undesirable....'. This is giving flexibility in restoration, which is similar to the so-called 'Compensatory Planting' in HK, not to be in the strict 1 : 1 ratio; but to the review & decision of the Commissioner under apparent consultation with Nparks, which would alternatively rely on their +150 Arborists for decision in Tree Planting.

9. Para 23 (1) (a) & (b) has given guidelines on how to install planting area in development in Singapore to be ' not more than 2m wide...' or 'not more than 5m wide from the front boundary of the premises adjoining or abutting a public street '.

10. Under section (3) of Para 23, the Minister may ' prescribe different dimensions of planting areas for different classes or descriptions of premises...' , & this notification shall be ' presented to Parliament...' . This just shows how serious Singapore is taking their greenery proposal all the way up to Parliamentary level.

11. Para 24 (1) states that ' No person shall, except with the approval of the Commissioner..... commence or carry out, or permit or authorize the commencement or carrying out of any building work on those premises.' This can be interpreted as no builder's work can commence until the Planting Plan is approved under the PTA.

12. Para 25 concerns the responsibility of maintaining Planting Area. It describes that ' It shall be the duty of the occupier of the premises... to maintain the planting area, .... The Commissioner may, .... require the occupier .... to carry out such work to the planting area o any part of it as he thinks fit...'. This ensures the Planting Area under the description is properly cared for by the premises owner.

13. Para 26 describes how the Planting Areas are not to be interfered or penalties will be imposed.

14. Para 27 provides enforcement for Greenery Protection. It states in section (1) that ' Commissioner may at any time serve on the occupier of any premises... to do all or any of the following within the green margin of those premises...'. The kind of work to be carried out such as planting or re-planting, maintenance, weeding, etc. are given. In section (2), ' No person shall, at any time, cut or damage any tree or plant which has been planted....', unless it ' constitutes an immediate threat to life or property.' This is similar to the HK guidelines that trees posing immediate danger can be removed without prior notice.

15. Para 30 concerns the provision of Green Verges on public street. Under section (3), ' ....or no green verges are made up in respect of those construction work, .... an enforcement notice in writing requiring him to make up such green verges ...'. Then in section(4), the ' Road Authority shall, before commencing or carrying out, or permitting or authorizing... of any construction work... by or under any written law, consult the Commissioner in respect thereof.'. This again appears to confirm that road work in Singapore would require agreement of the Commissioner before commencement if greenery has become an issue

16. Para 31 concerns street works affecting Green Verges. The Commissioner ' may serve a reinstatement notice on any person who appears to the Commissioner to have been responsible for or have participated in anything done in contravention of that subsection requiring the person to remedy (wholly or in part) the contravention.'

17. Para 32 deals with the specification & approval procedures in greenery application. Section (1) (a) has intelligently allowed flexibility in the submission by not stating rigid formats in application procedures, but to provide ' in such form & manner as the Commissioner may require'. This then allows the Commissioner to pick the best & most suitable format in submission to suit practical needs. Singapore has nearly zero corruption & this clause would work for them well. Section (2) allows the Commissioner to require the plans ' to be made or certified by a qualified person' ,& not stating which particular landscape professional (Horticulturist, Arborist, Landscape Designer, etc.) is required. The 'qualified person' in PTA is either the Architect or the Engineer, & the Commissioner would let them pick whichever landscape professional that would be acceptable to the Commissioner for making the planting proposal. In this respect, Arborists are likely to be employed by the 'qualified person' to deal with Tree Design & Selection, Tree Planting & Maintenance, Tree Inspection & Protection; since Nparks reviewing the plan under the Commissioner will be full of Arborists themselves to talk on the same subject.

18. Para 37 concerns trees & plants obstructing traffic. Authority is given to the Commissioner to ' serve an enforcement notice requiring the occupier of the premises to take such measures as the Commissioner thinks fit ' to rectify the situation. Here again, it will be up to the tree owner to employ whatever landscape professional acceptable to the Commissioner to do work complying with the Commissioner's notice. Then as such, Arborists are likely to be appointed to carry out Tree Work such as pruning, removal or transplanting for the rectification, & not by common gardeners.

19. Para 39 deals the power to require information in respect of contravention. The Commissioner has the authority to ' serve an information notice to require any person.....with information relating to that case in the possession or within the knowledge of that person'. Since no exemption clause appears to exist to exclude anybody in this Para, it may indicate to even include Govt Officers in other agencies to be under the scrutiny. This then provides the Commissioner a paramount authority to demand information from anybody if a contravention has appeared anywhere before him within his jurisdiction.

20. Para 40 further provides the Commissioner the authority to ' enter any land ' to investigate any suspected contravention, including demanding the identity of the suspect.

21. Para 41 provides the Commissioner the power to ' arrest, without warrant, any person who has committed....an offence under this Act....' under certain condition. A person arrested under this section ' may be detained ' until his name & address are correctly ascertained.

22. In the other Paras of Part VIII of the PTA, penalties & offences are clearly defined for breach of this Act. It appears that the final judgment will be by the Court Judge & the offenders are likely to appear in Court in the case of a contravention.

23. In Part IX of the PTA, the appealing procedures, exemption, service of documents, etc. are given. It is also interesting to learn that in Para 63, ' The Board (Nparks) may,......, make regulations for carrying out the purposes & provisions of this Act.' This is giving Nparks the convenience to make technical judgment for future variation.

In summary, to the interest of ISA HK/China as an Arboricultural Organization, the relevant advantages of the PTA appeared to rest in the following areas:

a. The PTA has set up a simple structure of having a Commissioner who may be an Administrative Officer, to rely on a single Govt Agency (Nparks) for technical consultation in greenery matters, & not favouring any particular landscape profession in greenery issues (In fact, favouring any particular landscape profession may actually infringe the Law of Equal Opportunities in HK). Nparks in turn possess a range of landscape professionals to do the work. Trees are known to be the responsibilities of the +150 Arborists in Nparks from design, installation, maintenance, inspection to preservation.

b. The PTA does not instruct a rigid framework in their submission procedure or format, but rather in a manner suitable to meet the practical need of the situation at time of application. This allows flexibility & aims straight to the target as deemed required by the circumstances encountered.

c. The duties & responsibilities of each of the parties (Govt & public) concerned are clearly defined, with penalties laid out for Court decision. Everyone knows where he stands in front of the Act.

d. The Commissioner is empowered to overlook all greenery matters in construction & development. He has the authority to demand information from anybody including Govt Depts & is required to be consulted before certain construction is due to begin. Greenery matters can be brought up to Parliamentary level by law if necessary .

For those of us who would take the effort to study into this excellent PTA, they may now begin to realize why the trees in Singapore are so well planted. Trees in Singapore are an icon in the region, & have consistently been admired by the people of HK.

There have been a lot of ISA Research on the benefits of trees including helping patients to recover faster, building a more harmonious society & reducing crime in neighborhood. Having good trees around is not just an environmental issue but also a social sentiment nowadays. Singapore has long appreciated this fact & has built their country with good Tree Planting over the years, which has also helped develop their Tourist Industry. Trees in Singapore are looked after well by their Arborists & their contribution has been invaluable indeed.

This Station Mail may invite comments from our Station Members in HK, like a range of our other discussion in many topics. On the other hand, would anyone sending enquiries in please kindly note our circulation policy at the top of this message before sending?

Thank you for your kind attention.

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

"If a tree is not designed, installed, maintained & inspected properly, it is likely to become a liability rather than an asset."

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

ISA HK/China --- Virus Attack on our Computer System

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*** 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 All,

It is an unfortunate event for ISA HK/China to inform you that our computer system has encountered a massive virus attack on Monday 16.3.09 from which, about 20% of our Station Membership has been lost even after we have fixed the problem earlier today. The groups which have been affected are the Contractors, CEDD, LCSD & HYD primarily, although a few individuals in the other groupings may also be affected due to this unfortunate incident.

In order to put our e-mail listing back into place, we have reviewed from past correspondences & written record to try to reinstate. It is possible that a few individuals with correspondences with us in the past but not our Station Members are also accidentally placed into our Station Mail circulation.

Therefore, if anyone of you is receiving our Station Mail but not wanting to receive it for any reason, please kindly accept our apologies & advise us at the same time that you want to be removed from our Station Mail circulation. ISA HK/China will be obliged to remove your good name from our listing immediately & you will not be disturbed any further.

For those of you who are not our Station Members but are now receiving our Station Mail & is willing to carry on receiving it, you do not need to do anything & we shall seek no further confirmation from you.

Please note it is a Station policy that anyone can withdraw from ISA HK/China at an e-mail notice anytime & we have only 9 withdrawals from our +780 Station Membership in the past 4 years.

This message will be put on our Station Blog for public notice. We shall be grateful if any of you knowing anyone who is not receiving our Station Mail starting next week to advise us to reinstate their status for continuous mailing.

In the coming Station Mail, ISA HK/China will release our review on the important Parks & Trees Act of Singapore, & the international definition of a tree for broadening the knowledge of our Station Members.

Thank you for your understanding & continuous support for ISA HK/China always.

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

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

ISA HK/China --- HK Tree News (Tree Failure in Cheung Chau)

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*** 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,

As the rainy season approaches southern China, Urban Trees begin to fail as a traditional routine in our territory.

Attached is an insignificant piece of Trees News in a local newspaper showing a 10m tall tree of unknown species, failed at 8 am of 6.3.09 after heavy rain, to hit the buildings next to it. Balustrades of the 2 buildings were damaged & luckily no one was hurt. From the picture so shown, the fallen tree rested upon the balcony of a building & the chance of hitting a casual visitor would be high if at the wrong time of the day, say, evening after a meal.

It appears that our public may not have accepted the concept of 'Prevention is Better than Cure' when it comes to Tree Care, especially for potentially hazardous trees of mature size. Certain ailing trees have been kept in place out of compassion, but without regular inspection by a trained Arborist. A lot of people appear to love trees in so far that they do not have to spend money on it. Regular Tree Inspection at a 6 month interval is considered unnecessary, & trees health & safety are judged by looking at the foliage alone.

Then when the tree failed, as long as the incident does not kill, the media coverage is usually insignificant & the fallen tree would be quickly removed out of convenience. An Independent Arborist would hardly be called in to carry out post mortem for future prevention or recommendation. The case would be regarded by the public as an Act of God which should happen from time to time, because trees are doomed to fail one time or another. Any legal liabilities would be the problem of the insurance company. The case would look after itself well in our social structure with maybe a few whisper among the Tree Lovers to be just another unfortunate incident. Memories would fade in time until a bigger case would come up again.

With attitude as such in our society, trees are likely to carry on failing because they are expected to fail. Information on Tree Failure will continue to feed into ISA HK/China & Tree Failure Report will become a never ending story in our Station Mail to when ?....

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

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

ISA HK/China / TCHK --- Demonstration and Informal Dinner with Tim Bushnell 与国际树艺专家聚会

Dear ISA HK/China & TCHK Members 各位亲爱的会员,

It is our pleasure & honour to inform you that we have invited one of the best Tree Care Specialist in the world called Mr. Tim Bushnell to come to meet our members in HK as follows 本会有幸邀请到国际知名的树艺技术专家 添布殊先生 到纺本会，本会特意安排活动如下:

(A) Demonstration 示范表演

Date 日期: Sunday March 15, 2009年3月15日星期日

Time 时间: 2pm - 5pm

Venue 地点: Eurasian Garden Ltd., 22B, Kam Road, Kam Tsin Village, Sheung Shui, HK. 香港上水金钱村金钱路22B欧亚园艺 （电：9090 6719）

Topics of discussion 示范项目: Demonstration of various Tree Climbing Equipment & Techniques on trees; Structural Pruning & Rigging Techniques. 各种攀树、锯木、流缆、修剪的器材使用和技术

Capacity 人数 : 50 人

Cost 费用: Free of charge 全免

Deadline of Entry 截止报名日期: 9am Sunday March 15, 2009年3月15日上午9点

(B) Informal Dinner 便饭叙会

Date 日期: Sunday March 15, 2009年3月15日

Time 时间: 6pm - 9pm

Venue 地点: In a restaurant with location to be confirmed later in the Sheung Shui / Fanling Area for transport convenience. 未定，将会在离欧亚园艺不远的上水 / 粉岭地区的某家酒楼内进行

Seminar 演讲内容: A one hour presentation in power point on the use & care of Tree Climbing & Rigging Equipment, & the relationship in Structural Pruning & Rigging. Chinese translation will be provided. 一小时左右的幻灯片发布会，展出当今国际流行的攀树、锯木、流缆、修剪的器材使用和技术，多为本地没有购进和使用的部份，用以补充在下午示范表演时的不足

CEU 学分: One CEU will be offered for any CA / CTW attending 持有树艺师 / 攀树师牌照人员可得一个学分

Capacity 人数: 30 人

Cost 費用: The Dinner cost will be shared evenly among all participants like in all our Informal Dinners before. 于饭后埋单时由各人平均摊分

Deadline of Entry 截止报名日期: 9am Friday March 13, 2009年3月13日上午九点

Background of Tim Bushnell 讲者背景: Tim is the Chief Technical Officer of the International Tree Climbing Championship of ISA & the International/Regional Business Manager of Sherrill Tree which is more or less the designated Tree Climbing & Rigging Equipment supplier in our territory. The Station Manager himself practically obtain all his gears from Sherrill Tree in the past. Tim is an experienced Tree Climber & Tree Worker for decades himself, & his specialty rests internationally in these topics. Tim has flown half way across the globe to attend the HK Flower Show seminar & this is a rare opportunity in our territory that we can get to meet an International expert like Tim. This is certainly an occasion not to be missed. 添布殊先生是ISA国际攀树比賽的总技术主任，他在本行极负盛名。添先生目前任职沙路树艺器材公司的国际营销经理，此公司与ISA合作多年，而本会长的自用器材也大部份由此公司购进。添先生本身是一位在树艺工作数十年的老行家，其专项在攀树、锯木、流缆、修剪的器材使用和技术方面。此次他远渡重洋参加由康文署主办的香港花展研讨会同时，接受本会邀请作出示范和讲座两场，實为本会福祉。故祈各会员踊跃参加，一睹此君的知识风范。

Please note anyone can participate in either event or both events, although the knowledge given is different & separate in each event. It is therefore our recommendation for anyone to attend both events. 各会员可自选参加两个项目的一项或全部两项，然而两个项目并不相同，知识重点各异。本会建议各会员同时参加两个项目以得其长。

Looking forward to hearing from the participants soonest. 上述项目均有中文翻绎，欢迎各会员踊跃报名。

best regards 此致,

Sammy Au 欧永森
Station Manager of ISA HK/China 国际树木学会 中国地区分会 会长
TCHK Chieftain 香港树木学会 会长

ISA HK/China --- China Tree News (Instant Effect)

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*** 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,

Attached is a recent article in a national newspaper in China commenting on the so-called 'Instant Effect' in their landscaping work. The contents in simplified Chinese is self-explanatory.

In our territory of HK, Macau, Taiwan & China, the same attitude of 'Instant Effect' in landscape has existed for over 20 years already. Clients, especially those in property development, desire this 'Instant Effect' so that they can market off their sales for a rapid return of their investment. Then what is left behind after the construction would be the liabilities of the property management. This has led to conflicts between the two parties all the time.

ISA HK/China constantly receives complaints form Station Members in the contracting business & housing management to curse their Tree Planting as being unreasonable & short-sighted. We would advise them each time to discuss it with their supervising body or client, because such would be regarded as a contractual dispute rather than an academic interest.

On the other hand, if a tree is produced by the Containerized Method, i.e. inside a pot or bag for long period of time, & is to be used in landscape for 'Instant Effect', Girdling Roots would likely develop inside the container to strangle the trunk vessels in future. With Girdling Roots circling around the base of tree instead of spreading out radially for anchorage, the tree is also likely to topple in storm owing to being 'top heavy' when mature .

If a tree is to be planted in a 1m x 1m concrete planter where the roots can not escape out for radially anchorage, Girdling Roots would be induced to develop inside this planter to damage or topple the tree later.

If young trees are installed in a narrow planter without adequate spacing for an 'Instant Effect', these trees would be unlikely to grow healthily & be structurally safe when they become mature, owing to a lack of space. Just imagine your own residence of 4 persons will be required to house 4 families later. Would you have enough room & resources for good living?

It can be seen that Tree Planting is a long term investment & trees are not Lamp Posts because they grow. In reality, some trees in our cities would stay longer than the Lamp Posts if planted correctly. Now our brothers & sisters up north have awakened to respect this phenomenon & are beginning to question the wisdom of the so-called 'Instant Effect'. They begin to ask whether they are really spending their money worth for something 'good looking' at present. They begin to worry about the future by planting an apparent Time Bomb. In short, they have begun to re-think.

How would we react to the same in HK then?

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

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

ISA HK/China --- CA Training at Reach

国内朋友请使用翻译软件阅读本文。
*** 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,

Attached is an advertisement for Certified Arborist (CA) Training offered by an education institute called Reach in HK in Apr 2009. The contents in Chinese are self-explanatory. ISA HK/China is issuing it as soon as we have received.

Please kindly note that Reach has actually spoken to the Station Manager (SM) last Wednesday to advise that the program was +90% full at that time after less than one week of internal announcement, & only limited vacancies may be still available now.

In accordance with current ISA Certification Policies, the SM who is the Chief Proctor in our territory of HK, Macau, Taiwan & China, will not take part in any CA Training in order to avoid Conflict of interest. This complies with the ISA policy of ' The Referee can not be the Coach'.

However, the SM has agreed to Reach to offer ETF to be part of their training ground for subjects such as Pruning, Tree Climbing, Rigging, Plant Health Care, Chainsaw Uses, Safety in Tree Work & Tree ID. ETF was designed originally to be an education center for ISA Arboriculture in our territory. It was rented to Reach for their training without any participation by the SM himself.

It is always good to see CA Training is becoming popular in our territory & ISA HK/China will support any Training Institute to run any CA Program anytime.

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

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

ISA HK/China --- Decay Detection Device (DDD)

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*** 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 xxx,

Thank you for your 30 minute phone call on your enquiry of Decay Detection Devices (DDD) for Tree Inspection. I hope I have given you a satisfactory answer with my best ability & I hope you do not mind I am repeating some of my reply to you in an open Station Mail to let our Station Members understand our conversation without disclosing any detail of yours, since I think this exchange may be useful to them too.

From my research, communication with international Arborists & observation at seminars & conferences, it is known to me that DDD can only supply a cross sectional analysis of decay to some degree of accuracy, with possibly the Micro-drill Method (Resistograph?) to be more precise than the Sonic Method (Tomograph?), if used correctly. The micro-drill method was initially used to detect wood rot in lamp post in the utilities industry, adapting to detecting wood decay by the Tree Care Industry later on.

Prof Schwarz of Albert-Luwigs-Universidad of Switzerland has given research on the preferential fungal development in micro-dill wounds rather than in normal size drill holes in Tree Inspection, due to smaller hole harbours the fungi better, at the ISA Brisbane Conference in 2008. This would mean that using micro-drill in Tree inspection may lead to a higher chance of fungal development in a tree, i.e. the more holes drilled, the more internal decay would happen as a result. This is something to watch out for in choosing micro-frill as a DDD.

No matter whether a micro-drill or a sonic device is to be used for decay detection, a longitudinal examination of decay development in a tree is not possible, with the existing DDD available in the market. It is a known fact that any cavity in a tree would not be arranged in a 2-D fashion, but rather in a 3-D configuration. It is also not possible to increment the current DDD to be at a practicable distance to map out the 3-D configuration of a cavity in a tree. Therefore, the result of such DDD would have to become a source of reference only, & not a direct determination of whether a tree would stand or fall.

I personally have seen Tomograph result of a limb before cutting, to be completely out of proportion to the actual decay distribution of the same limb after removal. This could be due to incorrect use of the instrument, poor technique in configuration or others.

Even with a high accuracy of any DDD result, it still has to be interpreted by an experienced Arborist to imply his/her knowledge to whether this tree would stand or fall under a certain condition, e.g. wind pressure, wood structural strength, leaning severity & root stability. There are many mathematical formulas to predict tree failure, & it appears that international Arborists can not agree on any one to be acceptable in a universal basis. Most would agree that it would still depend on the judgment & skills of the Arborist in concern to make out the guess work. I am attaching 2 previous Station Mail on this subject for you to refresh your memory.

Therefore, my advice in your case would be that do not take the DDD to be the Holy Grail in making a Tree Failure Analysis. The DDD must combine with the knowledge & experience of the Arborist to help him/her to make an educated judgment backed up with research.

Please let me know if you have further queries on this complicated subject. I shall try my best to answer with my limited ability.

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

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

ISA HK/China --- Our Station is 4 years old

*** 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,

Coming to the month of February 2009, ISA HK/China will be 4 years old.

Remembering when we first started in Feb 2005, ISA HK/China had only the Station Manager (SM) & one other Station Member as the only two constituents. We were in doubt of whether ISA Arboriculture could take off in our territory at that time, although we have seen the successes in other territories. Arboriculture is not a hobby like house plants as known around the world. It is a serious profession involving institutional research in universities & govt bodies at high level. Tree Care is a necessity in many municipals & is usually in the hand of City Arborists & Urban Foresters, because failing trees can become major hazards in a populous city. Legal battles would be the end result if trees have become Time Bombs.

3 years are gone by now & ISA HK/China has already +770 Station Members joining in from all walks of life, from Professors to Housewives, Engineers to Florists, Politicians to Civil Servants, Designers to Contractors, & from many other disciplines. We are an inclusive group in greenery & practically anybody with an interest in tree is welcomed to join in. We are also the biggest & an influential Arbor Group in our territory of HK, Macau, Taiwan & China at present, & we keep on expanding. Station Membership has now spread into China with their Landscape Engineers joining in as the forefront, learning & applying ISA education in their seminars & policies during their daily work. It may be just a matter of time that China will adopt ISA knowledge & principles for their trees, from design, installation, maintenance to inspection, before their public will join in en mass. The English language of ISA research appears to be the major obstacle to our brothers & sisters at present, & TCHK (http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/treeclimbinghk) is working hard to break the ice in this aspect.

Station Structure has also developed from the sole SM & a bunch of enthusiastic volunteers to recruit two helping hand of Tony Ng & KM Li as Deputy Station Managers (DLM) in the past year. Although these two gentlemen play rather low key in their public appearance, their valuable contribution has built ISA HK/China in many areas into a solid foundation. Tony is a contemplating strategist whose steady skills has provided useful support in administration & training programs, whereas KM is a muscular trainer in many areas of the practical side of Arboriculture including appliances & climbing. On the active side, Tony has participated into the Singapore Green Thumb Climbing Event last July in place of the SM who was caught with the urgent Tree Rigging at Tsuen Wan Tak Wah Park, & has won awards in Safety & Chainsaw Uses. KM has represented ISA HK/China to attend the Leadership Workshop & Proctor Assembly organized by the ISA HQ last October to bring back photos of magnificent North American Trees to be put on Station Mail later on. We are grateful to their valuable contribution at all times.

One major breakthrough for ISA HK/China in 2008 would be the advance into China at the 2008 IPM Show in Foshan & the 2008 China Southern Green Fair (CSGF) in Zhongshan, both happened in Dec 2008. The name of ISA has since then appeared in national media in China to meet their millions in the greenery industry. Seminars on ISA Arboriculture & Tree Climbing Demonstrations were conducted for the first time at these two national shows. The name of ISA is now officially registered in the China Greenery System which is a positive beginning for our further development.

As we grow, we are constantly looking for volunteers to come in to expand ourselves. We need personnel with strong belief in Integrity, Professionalism, Participation, Fact-finding & Truth-telling to steer our Station forward, & into the Land of Old Dragons which seems to leave half a door open for us. We intend to build a united front of local experts to enter China to set up 'Trading Posts' initially in the affluent cities along the coast. As we can gradually recruit local participants to join in with our belief, we shall promote ourselves inward step by step. ISA HK/China will maintain a watchful eye on its development with all our expertise, & with the help of ISA HQ & our regional counterparts. Our promotion strategy is clear & simple to be transparent to anybody, because we believe we are doing good deeds to the China people to help them to grow better trees to improve their quality of living. How would they then object to that?

Our liaison with our regional partners around the Pacific Rim has continued to be as strong as ever, & our intimate bonding with ISA HQ will persist since we bear their name. All we need now are more helping hands from our territory willing to devote themselves for the course of our development, to set up ourselves strongly in structure & to maintain our progress steadily into China. We cordially believe those who would help in now would reap the sow in future to come, in a land so vast & green for the Tree Care Profession. Sky may be the limit for the development of Tree Care in China, which at present is a blank page.

3 years are gone & we are now moving into our 4th year. As our billionaire tycoon Mr. Li Ka Shing has said to the media in the past: "Maintain stability during development, & maintain development during stability." Such may be our guideline in a time of financial turmoil currently. Such may the key to our success in future.

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

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

ISA HK/China --- 2009 ISA Annual Conference

Dear Station Member,

Please kindly find below the information of the ISA Annual Conference to be held in Rhode Island this year.

ISA Annual Conference is a gathering of international Arborists to review the latest research, technique & equipment. It is most educational & very jam packed with knowledge contributed frommany institutes all around the world. It is an opportunity for any serious Arborist to advance himself/herself in the field.

Please note ISA HK/China has made it a requirement to attend an ISA International Conference at least once in order to join in the rank of an Independent Practicing Arborist, IPA (http://isahkchina.blogspot.com/2008/08/isa-hkchina-independent-practicing.html) in our territory. This is to ensure our IPA has an international insight & connection with global arboriculture, as well as an interest to participate into the ISA family seriously.

Looking forward to any of you joining the ISA Annual Conference this year.

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manger



----- Original Message -----
From: ISA Events
To: Hong Kong/China Station
Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2009 4:01 AM
Subject: Attend ISA Annual Conference
SAVE THE DATEJuly 24-29, 2009ISA 85th Annual Conference and Trade Show
Set your course for Providence, Rhode Island this summer and come to the International Society of Arboriculture's 85th Annual Conference, July 24 – 29.
6 Reasons Why You Don't Want to Miss This Exclusive Educational Experience:
1. Hear more than 50 different speakers from around the globe
2. Earn 60+ continuing education credits
3. Network with arborists and top industry professionals worldwide
4. Experience the International Tree Climbing Championship and ISA Arbor Fair for FREE
5. See cutting-edge industry products and techniques and check out ISA's "Sneak Preview Sunday" at the Trade Show
6. Participate in a variety of hands-on workshops providing 8 hours of valuable education and training
Interested?
Mark July 24 – 29, 2009 on your calendar.
Stay tuned for ways to SAVE and take advantage of this amazing opportunity awaiting you in Providence!
Be sure to visit http://www.isa-arbor.com/conference/default.aspx to get the latest information and special announcements.
If you would like to request a printed copy or pdf version of the marketing materials, please contact conference@isa-arbor.com

No virus found in this incoming message.Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.0.233 / Virus Database: 270.10.19/1938 - Release Date: 02/05/09 11:34:00

ISA HK/China --- 2009 Research in 'Managing Trees in Construction' Part 1

*** 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,

Attached is the latest research from ISA on 'Managing Trees in Construction' which is an all relevant topic in our territory & has caused adequate friction between various factions of our society with Govt & Private Developers when it comes to Tree Preservation on site.

The article has clearly pointed out that not every tree is worth saving in a construction site & priorities must be given to preserve only those trees which can become an asset instead of a liability after the development. It has also pointed out that an experienced Arborist well versed in the science of Tree Preservation, should be appointed to be part of the team from the design stage onward all the way to development completion, to ensure the right trees are to be retained, protected & maintained properly throughout. We wonder how often this process is being observed in our development at present.

Trees appeared to be preserved out of sentimental value for many a times in our territory, & we have frequently seen over-mature trees topped like Lamp Posts for fitting onto lorry transport for relocation, usually without question being asked how they would perform in future after the transplantation. In line with current Tree Preservation Policies in HK, any plant with a DBH over 95mm at 1.3m above ground would be classified as a 'Tree' regardless of species, & therefore certain sized bananas, bamboos & palms have all been relocated in this rigid manner without much consideration to the value of retention, & sometimes relying on the contractor's skills to survive this species upon transplant. Many curses have been reported to ISA HK/China from our Contractor Staton Members for this practice.

The 'Compensatory Planting' in HK is also currently set at a 1 : 1 ratio without much regard to whether the size of the planting area upon completion could really hold up the 'Compensated' planting for healthy & sustainable growth. All these practices do not appear to be in line with international trends but appeared to be acceptable to our general public. Heavy funds have also been devoted maybe in vain in this manner to retain trees of questionable nature without public scepticism & in the name of Greenery Protection. It is known to ISA HK/China that China landscapers at present would not do the same in their Tree Retention Policies, nevermind our good neighbour Singapore.

If HK would discard the pigeon-hole housing environment for our residents from the 1970's to the healthy & comfortable density at present, would our Govt & Developers do the same for our tree planting? Or is it the more the better for our trees as a comparison to advanced nations, disrespecting the need for above-ground & underground development of a tree? Are our public funds justified to save common bananas, bamboos & palms, or trees with low survival rate with poor wind-resisting structure only for possible future removal or replacement in a storm? Are we really taking our tree planting seriously to compare with advanced nation, or even China?

It appears that we may have a lot of questions for ourselves in our process of Greenery Protection.

Meanwhile, enjoy the attached research.

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

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

ISA HK/China --- China Tree News (Tree Climbing at CSGF)

*** 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 ISA Tree Climbing for the first time in a report to its +10,000,000 readers in Landscape Bureaus, research institutes, academics, consultants, contractors & nurserymen in China alike. ISA HK/China is now officially entering the China greenery industry as a recognized institute in its description.

Traditionally, Tree Climbing in China is regarded to be something belonging to the young & brave, & is usually done without PPE or recognized equipment but rather with a ladder & perhaps bare hand. In the past 10 years since elevated platform had been introduced from street lighting repair to roadside tree pruning, trees were hacked with Topping under an imaginary lines as an acceptable practice. Nearly all trees are still topped in this manner anywhere in China, & Crown Thinning or Crown Restoration are something unheard of in China greenery today.

The photo so attached has shown our Deputy Station Manager Tony Ng wearing full PPE with a chainsaw to demonstrate a limb removal in the proper manner at the CSGF in China last December. The Station Manager was quietly asked several times about the age of Tony & when told, the audience there were shocked to learn of someone not belonging to his 20's or 30's could climb a tree with full gears to carry out pruning on rope. Some were commenting whether Tony had taken steroids in order to fight height & strength before the climb.

ISA HK/China can see Tree Climbing to develop healthily in China with the oriental physique having a good ratio of muscular strength to body weight, which is to be regarded as an advantage in the strenuous ascent process. Wenda Li of the Florida Chapter who was originally from HK had won the Women's Master Challenge in ITCC in 2004, & is still an active tree climber today. Our KW Lee has won the Head to Head Footlock among Commonwealth climbers in Brisbane in May 2008 in the Asia Pacific ISA Tree Climbing Competition. Tree Climbing should have a great future in our territory indeed.

Whereas western tree climbers would consider retiring from professional tree work at the age of 35, some of our local tree climbers would begin to learn Tree Climbing at the age of +40 onwards. Many are still active tree climbers into their +50 for pleasure & work today. Tree Climbing classes of TCHK (http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/treeclimbinghk) have taken on students of all age & background for a year already & it is growing with enthusiasm among the public.

ISA HK/China will carry on to promote proper tree climbing to be an important element in carrying out quality Tree Work in our territory, since a lot of Structural Pruning simply can not be carried out by elevated platform alone. Elevated platform has its limitation in carrying out work inside the canopy for limb selection, which is best to be carried out by skilful Tree Climbers. On the other hand, ISA HK/China would vigorously introduce the ISA Certified Tree Worker (Climber Specialist) credential into China since the exam can be taken in Chinese, as a head start to develop ISA Arboriculture in China.

Happy Tree Climbing to you all.

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

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

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

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."

ISA HK/China --- Woven Station Label

Dear Station Members,

ISA HK/China is pleased to inform you that we have now prepared 200 no. of woven Station Label for costume attachment to identify ourselves during functions & events in our territory of HK, Macau, Taiwan & China. Pictures of the labels are attached for your examination.

The label has the background of our territory (HK, Macau, Taiwan & China) with the words ISA sprouting as it is over our territory. The words HK & China are given in Chinese & English to show that we are bilingual & international.

Please note the honour of this excellent design goes to the splendid Bimbo Design for which we have already lost contact. If anyone would know Bimbo Design anywhere anytime, please kindly give them a big 'Thank You' for what they have done for us for free to be remembered by the 1.3 billion population in China & the international ISA community in future to come.

Please kindly note that we have only ordered 200 no. of label to be manufactured this time, & it will be distributed on a first come first served basis. The cost will be HK$(or RMB)10 per label & anyone is rationed to buy a maximum of 5 labels each time for sharing.

Anyone wanting to buy the label please kindly send a return envelop with HK$3 postage pasted on it, & with return address clearly printed on, to the following address :

Eurasian Garden Ltd.,
22B, Kam Tsin Road,
Kam Tsin Village,
Sheung Shui,
NT

Payment can be made by cash (at your own risk) or by cheque made payable to 'ISA HK/China' for the correct amount at HK$(or RMB)10 per label. Please kindly note that no delivery will be made if payment is not correct or return envelope with postage not provided. Any delivery by return post is at the risk of the purchaser over the HK mailing system.

ISA HK/China now has +730 Station Members from all walks of life in HK, Macau, Taiwan & China. We are currently the largest Arbor Group on our territory & are quietly influential. ISA HK/China expects our Station Members & our IPA, CA & CTW to wear our Station Label in local & overseas ISA functions to demonstrate our identity & unity. On the other hand, the label belongs to a fashionable design with special meaning in it. Why not wear one?

Looking forward to receiving your order soonest.

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

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

ISA HK/China --- Structural Pruning at a famous School in Kowloon

*** 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 Station Manager (SM) was called upon by a famous school somewhere in Kowloon to carry out Pruning Supervision at Christmas period in 2008. This is a report on the process & methodology of how this interesting work has been carried out.

Without the permission of the school, their identity can not be mentioned. One thing we can say for sure is that many prominent politicians & officials in HK did graduate from this excellent school & the building itself there is classified as Historical Relic by the HKSAR Govt. Therefore it has been a great honour for the SM to practise ISA Arboriculture in this school.

The SM himself was actually referred by a CA Family (CAF) Member to discuss the work with the school with cordial thanks to this CAF Member who has always been a great help. The initial contact has been full of scepticism since ISA Arboriculture is still relatively unknown to our territory. Previous pruning work in this school was done by common gardeners with Topping as the main theme. Decay & structural imbalance have happened with many topped branches which has become major headache for the correction.

Upon several rounds of explanation by the SM, the school administration has given total faith in the SM to organize the Corrective Pruning for the + 50 trees in the school compound. A proper Tree Inspection was first carried our to assess the condition of the trees before any decision was recommended. Approx. 20 no. of the trees would require removal since they were beyond repair. The SM has advised the school to employ an ISA Certified Tree Worker (CTW) instead of ordinary gardeners since it would waste both time & effort to explain to laymen on how to do qualified work. The school has accepted this concept & invited in a CTW to work under the supervision of the SM who would act as an Independent Practicing Arborist (IPA) (http://isahkchina.blogspot.com/2008/08/isa-hkchina-independent-practicing.html) to carry out the work. The IPA was expected to organize, supervise & instruct the CTW to follow his judgment, & was expected to climb alongside the CTW to operate chainsaws if needed to help with the pruning.

At the start of the work, the CTW has great reluctance for the IPA to tell him what to do, & would think he was qualified enough to do the work himself. However, the CTW soon found out that being trapped in the canopy, he would have great difficulties to judge tree parts to be pruned or removed at the other side of the crown, since his vision & overall judgment would be blocked or blurred by the tree configuration in between. He has soon found that with the IPA on the ground to assist him to find the quickest & most efficient route to start the pruning from one side of the tree to another, a great energy saving & efficient process. The work efficiency has improved from only 2 trees in a day in the beginning, to 6 trees in a day upon the CTW willing to cooperate with the IPA. The total pruning for 30 mature trees were completed in just 6 days.

The school was very pleased for the work of the IPA & the CTW upon completion, since they have seen their trees properly trimmed without major disfiguration. The trees have also become structurally sound for the time being & the school was advised to carry out regular inspection every 6 months to ensure safety & health of their valuable trees in future.

The pictures of some of the trees before & after pruning are attached for general reference. We feel this is a good example of how Structural Pruning can be done in our territory with good result at a budget affordable to the client. We wish the rest of our territory can follow the same to help our many mature trees.

As has been observed over the years in HK & China, a lot of mature trees actually failed after pruning instead of before. It would be to do with the pruning method & knowledge of the practitioners doing it. IPA is indeed the guy to design & supervise the work for proper pruning, & the CTW should be the operator up the trees to carry out the work.

If HK & China can follow this direction & train more IPA & CTW, maybe our trees can be pruned safer & healthier. The number for our future tree failure may also be reduced.

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

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

ISA HK/China --- CSGF 2008 report

*** 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,

It is a genuine pleasure to write up this report of our attendance at the China Southern Green Fair (CSGF) during the Christmas period with the +10 no. Deputy Station Managers & Station Members indeed. In fact, we have enjoyed it so much that it was both fun & honour to be there.

To start with, the organizers have given us all the protocols that we deserved. We were provided with free hotel & meals all the way. Beyond that we were given a 40 seater coach just to sit the 10 no. of us travelling with a personal escort from the Town Govt. The display booth at the Show was given to us for free & was even decorated under our instruction with the organizer's manpower ! Where on earth would we get such a VIP reception & it was all given in the honour & respect of the largest & most historical arboricultural organization of the world with 84 years of running history, with + 22,000 members spreading across 47 countries, & with a true international standing in research & development in Tree Care, the one & only ISA.

At the technical seminar, the Station Manager (SM) was sitting on the same platform with professors & researchers from various Guangdong Provincial Institutes. At the time when the SM started talking, the +200 audiences paid complete attention to his delivery of knowledge that they have found useful & practical. Any cell phone ringing would be immediately turned off so that the phone owner could carry on listening. No one wondered off to toilet for a smoke like with the other speakers, & the whole room was silent & focused. One could hear a pin dropping besides the voice of the SM talking like a powerful reverend. The thundering applause at the end was long awaited & lasting. We would genuinely love to do the same in HK.

If we could say the IPM Show was attended by dozens of thousands of visitors, the CSGF Show was enthusiastically visited by the hundreds of thousands. Check out the photos for the 'People Mountain, People Sea'. The population mass of the Land of Old Dragons was truly compressing. The organizers have stood out the Tree Climbing & Tree Rigging for us as part of the Show attraction & vigorously advertised them in media announcement. The SM was also interviewed by 3 Provincial TV & 2 local TV stations. He has lost count on the newspaper reporter interviews with so many local & national presses.

The anticipated success at the CSGF with hardly any financial contribution from ISA HK/China is attributed to the respect for ISA by the organizers, & to the genuine contribution of our Deputy Station Mangers & attending Station Members, who all actually had a good time there unexpectedly. The name of ISA has now officially been stamped into China on a national scale, & will be watched by traditional interest parties. ISA HK/China will maintain course into this uncharted waters with respect & caution, lavishly expanding & sharing ISA skills & knowledge to our brothers & sisters without asking for any material return. We shall devote ourselves to win their hearts & minds with ISA morals & education. We are going to bring China into the ISA global family gradually.

ISA HK/China now anticipates invitation or further seminars & discussions from our Chinese brothers & sisters in time to come. We have made a good start into China & must maintain steam.

'How the East is Won' is our target & we shall work hard on it.

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

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

ISA HK/China --- Absence of SM and DSM for CSGF 2008

Dear Station Members,

Please kindly be reminded that the Station Manager & Deputy Station Managers will be absent from HK from Dec 25 - 28, 2008, to attend the Inaugural China Southern Green Fair (CSGF, http://www.csgreenfair.com/ ) in Guzhen Town, Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province, China. For any matter dealing with ISA HK/China, please kindly try to contact them outside this period as communication in CSGF may not be as comfortable as in HK. The mobile no. (+852-9090-6719) of the Station Manger will roam into China & it will be up to the signal there for connection. E-mail is always a challenge in China & please do not be surprised for any black-out throughout.

ISA HK/China has actually greater expectation in CSGF rather than IPM, since CSGF will be attended by the greenery industry of Southern China, which is the intended starting point of our Station due to logistics. ISA HK/China has seen organizations rushing to capital cities like Beijing & Shanghai's to introduce themselves, thinking that by getting to the top, their influence will spread below. The Station Manger has business dealing in China for the past 28 years & has seen various groups wasting resources & manpower for little gain. Since ISA HK/China is run by volunteers without pay but with only enthusiasm & contribution, we do not have extras to give away. Every bullet must hit the target without waste.

Many groups knocking on China's door may not appreciate that the Land of Old Dragons is not full of intellectuals practicing western ideas in their acceptance of anything new. +80 percent of the China population are still peasants. Peasants have to be guided in their own way & in their own language. ISA HK/China has acknowledged the history of political development in recent China & has decided to follow their success rather than forcing dogmatic western approach at once. We shall induce them with a mixture of ISA knowledge, morals, research & traditional Chinese culture to be flushed down with splendid eloquence. We shall see whether this strategy would work or not very soon. If not, we are always flexible & morphological.

Our success in IPM has given us much encouragement in introducing ourselves at the CSGF this time. CSGF has also given us more support by having more seminars & demonstrations than IPM which is primarily a Plant Show. We shall reciprocate their kindness by putting up an even better performance to gain future support & partnership. We always have vision far & beyond.

Looking forward to bringing good news from CSGF to all of you after next week.

We are determined to spread ISA into China like coca-cola, one tree at a time.

best regards,

Sammy Au

Station Manager

ISA HK/China --- CSGF seminar and demonstration invitation

贵方好：

国际树木学会 (www.isa-arbor.com) 属下的 中国地区分会 (http://isahkchina.blogspot.com) 将会于 12月27日 9 - 12时 在 中国(中山)南方绿化苗木博览会 (www.csgreenfair.com) 里 举办 '国际绿化树木规格' ，'国际标准的树木种植方法' 和 '国际标准的树木修剪方法' 三套讲座，又会于 当天下午2 - 5时 在 '古镇文化公园' 里 表演 '国际标准的树木攀爬方法' 一场。另、12月28日早上将会表演 '12米高大树流缆修剪及整株移除方法'。

所有演出，在国内尚属首次，全部由本会 '树艺师' 和 '攀树师' 义务进行，志在推广本会服务。恭请贵方光临指导，不胜荣幸！

此致

国际树木学会 中国地区分会 会长 暨 总考牌官

欧永森

谨启

2008年12月16日

ISA HK/China --- China Tree News (Liriodendron spp)

*** 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,

Attached is a research article by a Mainland Chinese University published in national newspaper regarding their findings on adopting Liriodendron cultivars in China landscape.

Liriodendron has been thought to be a landscaping tree only suitable for growing in northern China for years already. However, ETF has taken trial production for the indigenous Liriodendron chinensis since 2006 & has found the L. chinensis growing without difficulties in Guangdong climate so far from seeds. Pictures of the L. chinensis in ETF are attached for general reference.

L. chinensis naturally grows with a Central Leader, & would maintain a +60% Live Crown Ratio if not disturbed. It has been found to be a rather slow growing tree in ETF despite overseas reports, & would grow two times a year in spring & autumn primarily. It has been found to be relatively pest resistant & responded well to PHC treatment. The tree would naturally develop into Tear Drop Shape which is the best shape for wind resistance if Structural Pruning can be provided.

Liriodendron species has hardly been promoted in HK landscape like many other indigenous Chinese species which are now undergoing discovery by the Chinese landscapers one by one. China has always maintained a pragmatic approach in choosing their Urban Trees since their Landscape Bureau would need to care for their trees from cradle to grave. Their Landscape Engineers also appear to take an attitude in their Street Tree Selection by not going for 'flowering' & 'scent' alone. However, they equally face the problem of having limited space in Tree Installation which appears to be a universal challenge in our cities.

L. chinensis has a unique leaf shape like a traditional Chinese costume. In fact, that's how it gets its name over the years. It would be good to see this new species to go on trial in HK some time for enrichment in our local Tree Selection.

best regards,

Sammy Au
Station Manager

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