When Typhoon Soudelor lashed Taiwan on Saturday, its strong winds tore down a large number of trees along Taipei’s roads, lanes and alleys. Judging from the information gathered by tree protection volunteers, many of these trees did not survive the typhoon because they were planted in unsuitable environments: Where they were planted was neither wide nor deep enough to allow the growth of sufficient root networks, and water easily accumulated around their bases, softening the soil and contributing to their instability.
Three large banyan trees fell at the entrance to Lane 559, Beian Road in the Dazhi area (大直). They had all been planted in too small an area along a narrow sidewalk. After the trees fell, the gutter was exposed. After one of the trees, which had fallen on top of a shop, was removed, it was discovered that its roots were growing among lumps of mud and bricks and that the roots had found there way into cracks in the concrete along the gutter.
Likewise, the flower bed around the old banyan tree next to Taipei Municipal Chenggong Senior High School on Jinan Road, which in the past took up part of the sidewalk, had made the tree’s roots take on a square shape. Later, when the flower bed was removed, the roots could not get a good hold in the ground and following the strong winds brought by Soudelor, the tree fell across the intersection of Linsen South and Qingdao roads.
In Lane 107, Fuxing S Rd Sec 1, a beautiful old Chinese elm that had stood for decades fell in front of a building, blocking its exit. One person suggested that the tree should be cut up because it would be the most convenient and expedient way of removing it. Luckily, the building’s owner and a local shop owner were willing to provide the funds required to save the tree and a company was contacted to righten the tree and bolster it with supports. The flower bed surrounding the tree was cleaned up and beautified and the tree will hopefully live on.
Urban land is very expensive, which, at first look, would make it seem as if planting trees also is very expensive. However, in reality, a big tree is the approximate equivalent of a 12,000 British thermal unit (BTU) air conditioner and it is an effective way of preventing the heat island effect. Many scooter and motorcycle drivers and pedestrians would give a lot to enjoy the shade of a tree when they are stopped at a red light under the searing summer sun.
Furthermore, the “big tree” brand air conditioner does not add a single New Taiwan dollar to your electricity bill and in addition, it produces oxygen. This is well worth the money spent on trees and one can only hope that local academics would be able to produce a study to make the calculations on how valuable they are so that we would not have to always rely on foreign data.
The Taipei City Government is building sidewalks capable of storing water along some of the city’s roads in response to the extremely heavy rain that is being created by global climate change. One can only hope that Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) also might demand that the planting holes for trees be enlarged along all sidewalks that are widened and repaired.
Low continuous bushes were planted along Zhongshan N Road during former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) term as Taipei mayor, enriching the city’s ecological diversity. This project has been dormant for a dozen or so years and one can only hope that Ko might start it up again to help make Taipei a more livable place.
Chen Chia-hung is a member of the Trees Party’s Central Consultative Committee and a software engineer.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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