More than 25,000 trees in Taipei neighborhood parks are set to get health checkups for the first time according to a contract signed yesterday by the city’s Department of Civil Affairs and the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology of National Taiwan University.
The department is responsible for all city parks of area less than 1 hectare.
“In taking care of the parks, we have run into a number of problems,” department Commissioner Huang Lu Ching-ju (黃呂錦茹) said.
“There are many trees that appear healthy, but have fallen over for no apparent reason,” Huang added.
Huang said that typhoons are capable of blowing over more than 70 trees in neighborhood parks, jeopardizing people’s safety and making tree checkups important to ensure early diagnosis of diseases that might weaken them.
“Plants need plant doctors just like people need doctors and animals need veterinarians” said Sun En-jang (孫岩章), a professor of plant medicine at National Taiwan University.
The greatest danger facing city trees is brown root rot, he said, adding that the disease has been on the rise in recent years.
The fungal infection — sometimes called SARS for trees — attacks tree roots, jeopardizing their stability and ultimately killing the plant.
Early detection is extremely important because the disease has no known cure and quickly spreads to surrounding trees even before the initial host shows signs of stress, Sun said.
Sun added that poor planting choices by borough wardens are a major factor leading to plant disease, with wardens often selecting ornamental trees that easily succumb to infection in Taipei’s climate.
The contract stipulates that all of the trees in neighborhood parks will receive a health checkup at least twice in the coming year.
All borough wardens will be required to take a course in tree choice and health, the department said.
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