After Taiwan's worst forest fire in eight years, scholars, government officials and farmers have concluded that improved forest-fuel management would be the best way to prevent a repeat of such a blaze.
Fuel-management practices include planting different kinds of vegetation and removing fallen leaves more frequently.
The fire, which burned around Lishan (梨山), Taichung County, was completely extinguished by 5:45am on Friday, after more than 1,300 firefighters spent 120 consecutive hours battling the blaze.
The fire destroyed a total of 127 hectares of forest -- worth an estimated NT$16.86 million -- which would take 50 years to recover, according to the Forestry Bureau.
Chiou Chyi-rong (
"In the past decades, we thought we only needed to plant trees without doing anything further. However, removing the fuel produced by those trees [fallen leaves] is actually quite important, otherwise forests remove that fuel their own way -- through huge fires," Chiou said.
Last week's fire was particularly ferocious because of the oily Pinus taiwanensis Hayata (二葉松), whose leaves are slow to decay. The fire burned about 8,160m3 of this kind of plant. According to Chiou, nobody had cleared its fallen leaves over the past few decades.
Pinus taiwanensis Hayata is suited to the area's soil and climate.
Chiou said that, in addition to removing fallen leaves, officials could plant broadleaf trees whose leaves are full of moisture and decay more rapidly. Chiou added that such trees would help mitigate the damage caused by fires as well as prevent fires from sparking in the first place.
Lu Shih-jen (呂仕仁), a farmer from Lishan, echoed Chiou's suggestion, saying that government officials should think about ecological balance instead of commercial concerns when planting.
"We planted the pinus taiwan-ensis Hayata for pulp and paper production, but how to manage forests with ecological balance in mind is more important now," Lu said.
"Planting broadleaf trees would improve the landscape and provide more sources of sustenance for the forest's fish [the Formosan landlocked salmon]," Lu said.
The Forestry Bureau hasn't yet reached a decision on how to restore the burned-out area. But the bureau's secretary-general, Yu Chun-jung (
"The lesson we learned from this fire is that we should plant some other kinds of plants to minimize the damage caused by fire. We plan to plant broadleaf trees, such as schima superba var kankoensis and michelia formosana, for the recovery in the coming months," Yu said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS