Mon, Jul 13, 2015 page3

• Experts warn camphor tree surgery inflicts harm

  SENTIMENTAL TREE: The method used to prevent the collapse of a 130-year-old camphor tree might destroy it, as horticulturists disagree with foresters over the method

  • By Sean Lin / Staff reporter
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  Experts yesterday lashed out at surgery performed on Tuesday on an iconic camphor tree at the entrance of New Taipei City’s Shenkeng (深坑) Ancient Street, saying the “faulty” treatment, recommended by the Council of Agriculture’s Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, would destroy the tree’s immune system and harm the tree.

  The surgery, led by the Cheng Fu-Tien Tree Healing and Conservation Foundation, was carried out by horticulturalists climbing on the tree to trim its branches and entering a space inside its trunk hollowed out by fungi, to cut away the decayed portions, before filling the cavity with epoxy and coal to dry up the water inside.

  Data published by New Taipei City’s Agriculture Department puts the estimated age of the tree at 130 years and residents of Shenkeng said that the tree holds great sentimental value for them.

  Nach Huang (黃奕珣), director of the foundation’s environment department, said the fungi spread from cuts left by the improper trimming of the tree previously, which also led to withered and broken limbs.

  The treatment is meant to sustain the plant and prevent it from collapsing, she said.

  She said the surgery was conducted in compliance with the institute’s instructions.

  Green Formosa Front standing director Lin Chang-mao (林長茂), a self-taught horticulturalist, criticized the method adopted by the foundation, saying that it had been misled by the institute.

  The cutting involved in the surgery would destroy the compartmentalization of decay in trees, a naturally forming defensive layer around a tree’s wounds to prevent fungi from spreading to other parts of the tree, and it would exacerbate fungi infections, he said.

  In addition, the trimming should have been carried out during winter, when the level of photosynthesis in camphor trees is the lowest.

  “As most plants in Taiwan are evergreens that accumulate nutrients and antibiotics between spring and fall, trimming them during this period would hamper photosynthesis and the resulting wounds would require nutrition to replace what they had previously stored to heal,” he said.

  In summer when it is hot and humid, fungi can easily enter trees from the cuts left by trimming, making infections worse, he said.

  “In the end, a tree might look good from the outside, but its inside will have rotted away,” Lin said.

  Another serious problem facing trees, he said, is that their habitats are occupied by concrete and tarmac.

  Citing the camphor tree as an example, he said that its roots are completely covered by concrete, which blocks oxygen from the soil in which it grows.

  The concrete also heats up during summer, which destroys enzymes the tree needs to be able to absorb water and oxygen in the soil, Lin said.

  This could eventually lead to the tree collapsing, as without water and oxygen, its trunk is likely to corrode, he said.

  National Chung Hsing University professor of horticulture Liu Tung-chi (劉東啟) said that tree surgery has been prohibited by American National Standards Institute A300 standards since the 1990s after US plant pathologist Alex Shigo discovered the compartmentalization of decay in trees.

  He said that carving away the decayed parts destroys the compartmentalization of decay that helps trees recuperate from infections.
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