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.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
RSS