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Ben Westcott

Cedric Sam

Tree experts have called for reforms to protect the city's green heritage after a South China Morning  Post analysis of official data revealed just 214 trees out of 484 rated "old and valuable" were in good or fair condition.
Of the rest, over 100 had obvious wounds and others were riddled with "severe cavities", decay and "signs of pests and disease".
INTERACTIVE: Tracking the health of Hong Kong's trees
Nine government departments are responsible for the 1.7 million urban trees in Hong Kong, including the stonewall banyans and other specimens considered important. But Ken So Kwok-yin, chief executive of the Conservancy Association, said the focus was on risk management rather than tree care.
"We just wait for the tree to really show it's in trouble or becoming a problem, then we do something," he said.
"We'd only do something to prevent it falling. We're not really talking about caring about our trees."
In September, the Development Bureau updated its database of trees and identified 910 either considered valuable and old or in need of attention.
A bureau spokeswoman said trees with defects were of public concern and were put under continuous monitoring as well as various mitigation measures.
Of the 910 trees in the database, 132 were found to be leaning "abnormally", 23 had a severe cavity and 50 had trunk decay so severe it covered at least a third of the trunk diameter.
"When [roadside] trees are growing out and we find they are too low or may affect traffic, we will prune them, no matter how big they are," So said. "This is poor care and may cause a cavity or decay."

Professor Jim Chi-yung, the University of Hong Kong's "tree daddy", said urban trees had been neglected for too long.
"The lack of tree care or mistreatment of trees has been rather chronic for a long time. They need to step up tree assessment to make sure that more unsafe trees can be identified."
READ MORE: Government putting Hong Kong public at risk by not committing to register of tree workers and landscapers, experts say
Both tree experts, who are members of the government's expert panel on tree management, have called for one department to properly care for trees.
Jim said it was likely that the database was incomplete and many more trees were in need of attention. "If Hong Kong has only 900 trees with trouble, we should be very happy," he said. "It's quite unlikely … the tree assessment procedures means trees are falling through the cracks, shall we say?"
The bureau's spokeswoman said many old and valuable trees had severe cavities simply because of their age.
"Trees with trunk decay or a cavity more than a third of the trunk's size are, among others, indicators for departments to intensify the inspection frequency and maintenance effort."
And leaning trees or those with asymmetric canopies were a natural feature of stonewall trees, she added.


Poor tree care puts Hong Kong's green heritage at risk, warn experts

Expert say old trees, such as this one in Conduit Road, Mid-Levels, are threatened by maintenance that can cause decay. Photo: SCMP Pictures

'Tree daddy' Professor Jim Chi-yung

News

Hong Kong

Health & Environment

Switch the focus from risk management, experts urge, as data reveals problems with hundreds of the city's most valuable specimens
