Taichung City Government is to plant 1 million saplings over eight years to boost the numbers of 12 tree species on Dadu Mountain (大肚山) to sustainable levels, the city’s Construction Bureau said.
The reforestation would also improve the air quality in the city, the bureau said.
Dadu Mountain’s vegetation is largely comprised of acacia trees and Guinea grass, the bureau said, adding that the trees originated from the Hengchun Peninsula in Pingtung County.
Photo courtesy of Taichung City Government Construction Bureau
Early settlers to Dadu Mountain planted the trees to use them for firewood, which is why they are abundant in the area, the bureau said.
Later settlers used the area for grazing and set fire to the fields to clear them, causing the forest to recede, it said.
The native Aidia canthioides was also displaced by the invasive Cinnamomum burmannii that was brought to the area, it added.
There are seven vegetation types and 69 species of trees growing on the mountain, the survey found.
Nineteen of the tree species are growing at sustainable levels, but 12 are at dangerously low levels, the bureau said, adding that these include Aidia canthioides and Quercus glauca, also known as the ring-cupped oak.
The city determined that restoring the forest in stages would be too difficult and decided to establish a conservation area, bureau Director-General Huang Yu-lin (黃玉霖) said.
The city would plant the saplings in a manner that is best accommodated by the surrounding land and vegetation, Huang said.
The mountain covers about 250 hectares, of which 193 hectares belongs to the Wenshan Industrial Park, the bureau said.
The city would first pick 20 to 30 locations on the 57 hectares of public land as conservation test sites, and the final conservation area would be determined in the second half of next month, it said.
Water conservation would be a crucial part of planning for the conservation project, as the water table is well below the surface of the mountain, the bureau said.
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