Ahead of tomorrow’s Arbor Day, environmental protection groups yesterday urged the government to rename the day “tree protection day” to raise awareness of the need to protect trees from being randomly cut, trimmed or threatened by non-native species.
With many trees nationwide being harmed, including being cut down to make way for construction projects, randomly trimmed or tied up, having their roots covered with cement or threatened by diseases by the introduction of non-native plants, the groups said instead of holding tree-planting activities on Arbor Day, the government should focus on protecting trees that are already growing.
They said the government should take into consideration Taiwan’s climate, sunlight, altitude and geographic features when deciding what species are planted and where to plant new trees, they said.
Many public or private seed beds have been found to be infected with diseases such as Phellinus noxius (brown root rot disease) and Fusarium wilt Green Formosa Front standing director Lin Chang-mao (林長茂) said.
Sometimes the infected seedlings were replanted in other areas, causing the disease to spread, he said.
The Forestry Bureau should improve its management of seed beds to avoid having to spend money on saving trees after they are planted, he said.
Taiwan Academy of Ecology secretary-general Tsai Chih-hao (蔡智豪) said the bureau had planted many trees for soil and water conservation, but it had failed to make a distinction between non-native and native tree species.
Planting invasive non-native species in Taiwan’s mountainous areas has threatened the local ecosystem, he said.
Forestry Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Hung-chih (楊宏志) said that specialists carry out examinations of the seed beds under the bureau’s control every three months, adding that the bureau would gladly shorten the examination intervals to once every two months.
As for legislating a tree protection act, Yang said such a measure would require further discussion since it falls under the jurisdiction of several government agencies.
For example, street trees are managed by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, trees on school campuses by the Ministry of Education and trees in parks by the Ministry of the Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency.
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