There was a recent slew of letters and articles about the Albizia trees in Singapore.
My earliest recollection of the Albizia trees was when Bingwen, the bird watcher, pointed them out to me in NJC. He told me these mature big trees are home to many of the birds in NJC. The cockatoos even build their nests in the hollow of the trunks of these trees. Ever since that, I have been mildly interested in these trees. The Albizia (Paraserianthes falcataria) are extremely fast-growing, soft wood trees, introduced from Indonesia. According to Adrian Loo's letter to the Sunday Times, they have a "shallow root system and expansive crown" making them "susceptible to damage by wind" and hence dangerous to mankind and property, "especially during the current rainy season." As a result, the SLA and NParks had earmarked 63 Albizia trees in South Buona Vista Road to be cut down. One species had already taken the life of a dental assistant in May last year.
However, to the tree-huggers, this was a very painful thing for them. As these trees are big, beautiful, shady. It was also painful for the nature-lovers who stress that these trees provide many nationally endangered bird species such as the changeable hawk eagle and the grey-headed fish eagle with nesting sites and places to perch and roost outside the nature reserves. Therefore these Albizias play a very "important ecological role in the Singapore coun
tryside."
tryside." The SLA and NParks responded to the public and eventually cut down the number of trees to be chopped down to 13. These trees were in more dangerous locations due to their "proximity to residential areas and roads, poor condition or leaning position."
It is fascinating that these non-native, very common trees, can elicit so much response from the public. And there are so many different view-points in which one can approach this topic. I was reading a journal entry about how researchers have found out that most U.S. citizens had limited ecological understanding of the environment and their concern for wildlife were largely confined to "attractive and emotionally appealing species." So could this be a reason why the tree huggers were hugging these Albizias rather than other more endangered species?
Or is it a knee-jerk reaction that comes with the news of their impending removal? Just like how if one is going to tear down a historically important architecture, there will also be an uproar by the public about it.
Are these people truely interested in the ecological role that these trees play?
For me, I'm thankful for this chance to view this subject more objectively, after reading about it from the papers, and hearing Prof Hugh Tan and his lab denizens, chatting about it. Prof Tan even received a phone call and a Christmas card from these Albizia-lovers, which I witnessed during my short time in the lab on Thursday, 3/1/08.
My natural instinct would be to protect all that would be going to be destroyed. But now, I would consider the appropriateness of that choice, based on the characteristics of the plant, and the ecological role that it plays, and also how best to do it such that the environment would not get a shock from the sudden removal of its residents.
And to add, the issue is very much about human lives as well. Consider a human life and a tree. I would very much prefer to redeem a human life for a tree, even if the tree is very rare and significant. I wouldn't want anyone to lose or risk losing a loved one because I insisted on the value of a tree. And I too am a lover of nature.
Are these Albizias? They were fallen along AYE towards Jurong.
4 comments:
Actually what's most "fascinating" is that, during the recent months of wet & wild weather, not a single one of these so-called dangerous trees fell. In fact, not even a branch! But perhaps you'd prefer more carparks?
Hey, actually, I believe they do fall. Just that they have yet to fall on people or public property as yet, so their fall are not publicized. I was just at Pulau Ubin the other day, and my path on the bike was blocked by a fallen tree. The path was clear just a few days before that. I believe it is quite a common occurance for trees to fall. It's not uncommon to see fallen trees on the side of the roads as well. Just that they don't fall on the road, but deeper inside so no one makes a big hoo-hah about it.
These trees don't cost a cent to plant and grow. Yet they do not grow sturdily well enough and may fall on one of us and our loved ones. They might fall on our cars. And all these cost way more than the trees, in fact, human lives are priceless. So actually I believe it makes more sense to put lives before unstable trees. And if that means trees have to go, they ought to go.
And I don't really understand what you mean about the carparks. :)
Sure, they do fall – perhaps quite often (although in the case of the ones at South Buona Vista Road, according to residents who’ve lived there for 18 years, they’ve yet to see any actually fall…).
The thing is – there are Albizia trees everywhere in Singapore. And no matter what the potential risk, SLA & NParks have neither the time nor the money to fell every single one. Nor would we want them to – the result would be ugly and barren.
So that leaves the alternative – to tolerate a level of risk that’s acceptable to the public. A dead tree hanging over a public footpath – for sure that’s a risk that shouldn’t be tolerated. A huge unstable branch hanging over an expressway – that’s another example of where something should be done (e.g. pruning). But the parcel of land at South Buona Vista Road has no footpaths; while if you look closely you’ll note that actually the Albizias are set back quite far from the road.
Let me make a comment about “risk”. Some people might be a little freaked out by the concept of risk – but it’s a normal and natural part of life. It’s all around us. Its there every time you get in a car, or walk outside in a thunder-storm, or even eat a fishball! To live a life free of risk is impossible. Yes, human lives are priceless – but it’s idealistic to think that you can entirely insulate people from risk. Its part of being alive!
Botanical idealists might say it’d be better to replace all these “invasive non-natives” with more suitable local species. It’s easy to have such an opinion from the comfort of one’s armchair – but I’d reckon that replacing all Singapore’s Albizia’s with equivalent native species would be a massive logistical undertaking. Surely there’s better ways to spend public money?
Bottom-line – dangerous trees should go. But it’s important to differentiate between “dangerous” and “knee-jerk reaction.”
Wow Nick! :)
I'm very very impressed and moved by your reply.
About differentiating the levels of risk.
This is very new to me. Seeing this issue from so many different point of views.
So now I know that even though there are some risks to leaving Albizias around, we need to make a judgment which trees are more dangerous than others, which the NParks and SLA did by only selecting 13 trees to be removed, because it's also impractical to remove all trees.
And there is no way to totally eliminate risk in life. A fact we all have to accept.
I actually am not too sure where South Buono Vista Road is. Whether it's that patch visible from the BV MRT station? I must go and investigate it soon!
=)
But I do understand why these people like these trees so much. They are rather beautiful. And aren't we all attracted to beauty, whether inside or outside.
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