Campus Tree Management Regulations 2017 Open Letter on Resolving the Conflict Between Tree Protection and Pruning
[Enacting the "Campus Tree Management Regulations" So Tree Protection and Pruning No Longer Conflict] Open Letter
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To the students of National Chung Hsing University, the university administration, and the respected President Fuh-Sheng Shieu:
※The lesson of that little tree stump at the front entrance
Back in 2013, a small tree stump growing lingzhi mushrooms stood at the school entrance, and the Taiwan Tree Protection Groups Alliance pointed out that "this is the face of National Chung Hsing University"; it also pointed out that the fungal disease caused by hard, compacted soil is a common urban tree problem in Taiwan, China. NCHU Student Government at the time, in an article titled "Trees Are the Life of NCHU," stated that the trees were cut down because their illness "could not be cured"; it also noted that NCHU, as a school founded on agriculture and forestry and dedicated to cultivating agricultural and forestry talent, has deep feelings for trees. The widespread discussion and arguments among students and alumni also drew coverage from mainstream media.
So much time has passed since the entrance incident, yet the structural problems remain: How exactly should pruning be done? What is the right way to transplant? What tree-related management matters need to be regulated?
※The beheading incident at the Safety Inspection Building project was only inevitable
The construction of the Yongfeng Food and Agricultural Safety Inspection Building is proceeding at full speed. According to reports, more than 10 trees adjacent to the construction site had to be transplanted, yet during the summer growing season, when roots lack sufficient nutrients, they were all beheaded and left waiting for transplant. We subjectively believe the operators did not act intentionally, and therefore argue that blame should not be recklessly assigned. But how the university can ensure that campus trees receive ideal protection and establish progressive, benchmark-setting practices requires many detailed regulations and operating guidelines.
Without these regulations, neither contractors nor the university's technical staff would know where to begin in order to satisfy public opinion; but if the university takes on the responsibility for these regulations and provides guidance, then there will no longer be another tree incident in which responsibility cannot be traced because of construction or disease.
※Self-discipline with evidence: enacting campus regulations
We can use the above three examples to show how these Regulations would regulate matters.
Taking the entrance incident as an example, when designing and "transplanting plantings," the university must pay attention to the degree of soil compaction; during "regular sample-area risk index surveys," problems could perhaps be discovered early; when pruning, "correct pruning methods" can be followed to avoid fungal infection as much as possible; before removing trees, the relevant "removal regulations and reports" must also be followed.
Taking the beheading incident as an example, if this batch of more than a dozen trees needed to be transplanted, root-pruning work should have been completed before the end of spring. If the contractor, as required, had submitted a "campus project planting and transplant plan" after the engineering design and carried out "correct transplant handling" in the "appropriate season," then this summer's beheading in the wrong season would not have happened again.
Taking the Vienna Forest project incident as an example, at the early stage of design and planning, the design unit should have submitted a plan on planting impacts; and only after review could transplantation proceed. If trees needed to be transplanted or given special treatment, these Regulations could also be used to require the contractor to complete the work properly.
※It is not too late to start changing now!
Permaculture design emphasizes viewing problems positively as resources, and we believe#establishing progressive and great campus tree management regulationsis a feasible way forward. In the face of a single contractor's poor transplant practices, we choose#to address the management and regulatory issues in a more comprehensive and complete way. Conflict has always been unavoidable, but how we face conflict and mistakes is wisdom. Our club invites everyone to pool their ideas and unite to think about how to make tree management more progressive, to jointly oversee tree safety, and to put into practice an environment where trees can grow healthily. Let NCHU become an academic and campus space that is friendly to trees, appreciates trees, and has diverse tree knowledge for dialogue and exchange
We can together#face the problems squarely #create change
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*Petition topic: Enact the "National Chung Hsing University Campus Tree Management Regulations" to guide tree-related business within the Office of General Affairs' "Campus Landscape Management."
*How to sign: With your Facebook account, click#Jointhe event! And#invitefriends to join together. You are even more welcome to join the discussion and submit articles to us to express your opinions and views.
*Follow-up to the petition: We will, at an appropriate time, discuss the content and approach of the proposal with teachers in relevant fields, the Office of General Affairs, or members of the University Council.
*Petition demands: The establishment of these Regulations can ensure that campus tree transplantation and pruning are subject to reasonable and easy-to-follow regulations; ensure tree safety and healthy tree growth. It can also avoid tree-related disputes.
*Chapters included: General provisions and definitions, tree status registration and listing, regular potential risk surveys, tree species selection, transplant operation regulations, pruning operation regulations, removal operation regulations, treatment operation regulations, campus project planting and transplant plans, operator management and contracting regulations, tree safety incident handling.
#National Chung Hsing University Campus Tree Management Regulations
2013 entrance tree stump incident: https://goo.gl/U878LS
2014 Vienna landscape project: http://nchunews.blogspot.tw/2014/10/blog-post.html
2016 this month's beheading news: http://goo.gl/4mFWGK
Petition page: https://www.facebook.com/events/945174818939415
Chapter details: https://goo.gl/NtxKsR
"September 9 Campus Tree Handling Opinion Forum" Post-Meeting Statement by the Sustainability Club (2016/9/24)
On the afternoon of September 9, the Sustainability Club held an opinion forum with Chen Te-hsun of the university's Chief Secretary's Office, Liao Shun-yu of the Media and Public Relations Section, a specialist from the Office of General Affairs, and administrative staff from the Affairs Section; however, there were no concrete results in the process, only a loss of focus in the exchange of opinions.
※Our club regrets the university's "thank you for your guidance"
Our club has always emphasized#cooperation over conflict, but#the Chief Secretary kept evading discussionand could not enter into discussion of the impact, preliminary assessment, and pragmatic discussion of enacting the "Campus Tree Management Regulations." Instead, there were far-fetched analogies and the bureaucratic shield of "thank you for your guidance"; there was no response at all discussing the "principled" nature of the Regulations. Section Chief Liao Shun-yu stressed procedural issues, saying that "the chair's ruling is authoritative," while ignoring that students and faculty cannot effectively discuss matters within an unequal relationship of administrative power; he even accused our club of "personal attack" for asking Chief Secretary Chen to "get to the point" in answering this topic. Our club deeply regrets this loss of focus in communication, which felt like a naked performance of campus bureaucracy playing out patriarchy and obtuseness. The only discussion that could continue was a specialist from the Office of General Affairs saying that whether to establish the Regulations could be discussed further with frontline administrative staff.
※The university's ostrich mentality: unwilling to promote principled regulations
Our club affirms the Office of General Affairs' past efforts in campus tree management, including risk surveys, listing, and consulting teachers on related work; the university's procurement contracts have also included tree pruning regulations for years, and although they are not principled regulations, they are already progress. However, our club suggests#establishing principled regulations based on existing conditions, including the existing internal procedures of the Office of General Affairs, matters that should be included in procurement contracts, and future regular or irregular implementation of hazardous tree surveys and campus tree registration; all of these were ruled by the Chief Secretary as unnecessary to discuss further. Therefore, we believe that discussion of promoting these Regulations is no longer a matter of communication between our club and the university, but rather that the university is unwilling to face management negligence that has already occurred.
※In-kind donations often go wrong, making principled regulations even more important
At the same time, the university continued to make excuses: regarding this beheading incident at the food and agricultural safety inspection building contracted by Liming Construction as an in-kind donation from Yongfeng, the university had no direct contractual relationship with the contractor, and therefore could not manage tree-related matters, and it also did not pragmatically respond to how tree-related incidents would truly be avoided in the future; only#National Chung Hsing University Campus Tree Management Regulationscan ensure that every tree on campus receives complete protection under campus self-governance regulations, rather than merely relying on each individual contract to fulfill responsibilities. Our club sincerely hopes that similar matters will never happen again; but without institutional and principled self-governance regulations, how will National Chung Hsing University, which already has records including the entrance incident, the Vienna Forest incident, the Tower of Wisdom incident, and this incident, win the trust of students, citizens concerned about tree protection, and taxpayers in the future?
※Public attention on campus trees, ten thousand people overseeing
Campus tree management matters have already become a public issue: 9,700 people reached our club's petition activity, and 5,000 shared related reports. The meeting that day, with no concrete commitments or direction whatsoever, was truly regrettable.#The Sustainability Club's sole demand is to enact campus tree management regulations. Regarding subsequent campus policy communication, our club proposes the following two feasible paths:
One, make past administrative results public and organize past and existing practices
We request that the Office of General Affairs make public documents from past administrative results, including hazardous tree surveys and pruning operations. And regarding the possibility of enacting self-governance regulations, compare them against the "Assessment of Enacting Campus Tree Management Regulations" document listing the eleven key points in the draft, including: (1) related practices already implemented, (2) review of room for improvement and proposed possible directions for provisions, (3) assessment of the draft's feasibility, cost, and administrative burden. Through making an organizing document public, students, the Office of General Affairs, our club, and concerned people can discuss, on a foundation of equal information, the draft content each has studied, the expected results, and what is administratively bearable.
Two, hold public hearings
Following past practice for major campus issues, hold a public hearing on "Drafting and Enacting Campus Tree Management Regulations," implementing student participation, two-way communication, and democratic discussion, and widely invite relevant teachers and concerned students to attend.
Our club hopes that through discussion of concrete materials and public hearings, conditions of equal information can be achieved, implementing campus democracy and tree protection; we repeatedly emphasize focusing on the principled, declaratory, and public nature of the Regulations, and concretely discussing the costs, administrative burden, and feasibility the Regulations would bring. Ultimately, this will promote the development of campus space into a friendly, safe urban forest environment.
#National Chung Hsing University Campus Tree Management Regulations
#Make public materials and organize past and existing practices
#Hold public hearings
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*Petition topic: Enact the "National Chung Hsing University Campus Tree Management Regulations" to guide tree-related business within the Office of General Affairs' "Campus Landscape Management."
*How to sign: With your Facebook account, click#Jointhe event! And#invitefriends to join together. You are even more welcome to join the discussion and submit articles to us to express your opinions and views.
*Follow-up to the petition: We will, at an appropriate time, discuss the content and approach of the proposal with teachers in relevant fields, the Office of General Affairs, or members of the University Council.
*Petition demands: The establishment of these Regulations can ensure that campus tree transplantation and pruning are subject to reasonable and easy-to-follow regulations; ensure tree safety and healthy tree growth. It can also avoid tree-related disputes.
*Chapters included: General provisions and definitions, tree status registration and listing, regular potential risk surveys, tree species selection, transplant operation regulations, pruning operation regulations, removal operation regulations, treatment operation regulations, campus project planting and transplant plans, operator management and contracting regulations, tree safety incident handling.
#National Chung Hsing University Campus Tree Management Regulations
2013 entrance tree stump incident: https://goo.gl/U878LS
2014 Vienna landscape project: http://nchunews.blogspot.tw/2014/10/blog-post.html
2016 this month's beheading news: http://goo.gl/4mFWGK
Petition page: https://www.facebook.com/events/945174818939415
Chapter details: https://goo.gl/NtxKsR
[Enacting the "Campus Tree Management Regulations" So Tree Protection and Pruning No Longer Conflict] Open Letter: https://goo.gl/DLrf5b
[Questions and answers on National Chung Hsing University's four-point reply on this page]
President Fuh-Sheng Shieu, the Chief Secretary's Office, and the Office of General Affairs:
We are all educated people, and anyone with even a slight grasp of critical thinking or logic can identify the assumptions, analogies, and preset positions in the official reply. In addition, if you truly intend to respond, please respond on your own fan page;#replies posted on a small club page like ours are rarely seen! We hope for a response that truly faces our demands, truly addresses the problems, and deeply examines administrativenegligence and establishes general provisions;#drafting it by next Monday should not take too long, right?？
——{The four points within the brackets are the university's reply}——
→The arrow marks our club's response
{1. Our university has established the "National Chung Hsing University Campus Landscape Group Establishment Regulations," approved and implemented in July of the 99th year of the Republic of China (2010) to date. This group is placed under the Office of General Affairs and provides advisory assistance to help the Office of General Affairs coordinate and handle campus planting and greening and other matters related to campus landscape beautification.}
→Even with the establishment of the "Campus Landscape Group," its context is based on the campus landscape planning for the fence built at the university's Chung Hsing Lake and the multifunctional tower construction project; the group only has advisory power and has no actual binding force, internal administrative effect, or external administrative effect regarding the details of tree management. This therefore proves that the current system cannot respond to tree pruning problems. What concrete actions will the university take in the future?
※National Chung Hsing University Campus Landscape Group Establishment Regulations: http://www.nchu.edu.tw/~oga/rule/2/2-13.pdf
{2. The National Chung Hsing University Campus Landscape Group is composed of a convener (the Director-General of General Affairs), a deputy convener (the Deputy Director-General of General Affairs), 3 ex-officio members (the head of the Construction and Maintenance Section, the captain of the campus police team, and the head of the Affairs Section), and 6 professional members, 11 people in total. This year's 6 professional members include professors from the university's Department of Forestry, as well as off-campus architects and interior designers and other experts and scholars.}
→This passage hints that the university's Office of General Affairs can consult professors from the Department of Forestry, architects, and interior designers. But what we truly care about is whether there are campus rules to follow for pruning, transplanting, treatment, and so on. Can our club's draft or the established pruning guidelines of various counties and cities be referenced?
{3. This group meets at least once each semester. All matters such as campus landscape, planting and transplanting, and greening and beautification must be submitted to this group for review and discussion, with experts in relevant fields from on and off campus providing implementation opinions.}
→Please give examples of how many planting cases have been submitted for review in recent years. What are the meeting minutes of the reviews? Can the meeting minutes be made public to establish credibility? How are the review conclusions delivered to the administrative system? Since 2010, at least five tree incidents have occurred at the university (the entrance incident, the multifunctional Tower of Wisdom, the root-cutting incident at the old school gate's Vienna Forest, the bark scraping incident at the outer wall, and the beheading incident). How much has the Campus Landscape Group addressed the#planting impacts of projects? How much actual effect has it had on tree pruning and transplant work? Will there be concrete actions in the future?
{4. Regarding the petition launched online by the National Chung Hsing University Sustainability Club for campus tree management regulations, the university affirms students' concern for environmental awareness and the environmental landscape, and will subsequently invite teachers and students concerned about the campus landscape to attend the landscape group meetings as non-voting participants, so as to transparently and openly broaden participation and widely incorporate diverse views.}
→Can we only solve things according to existing conditions? Or can we promote a new management regulation; invite students and experts to jointly deliberate and enact regulations through campus democratic mechanisms. Therefore we insist on our sole demand:#the establishment of the National Chung Hsing University Campus Tree Management Regulations, to lead the trend in campus tree management. With principled general provisions, establish a tree management regulation that is#institutionalized #operable #and truly tracks tree conditions, ensuring#the safety and healthy growth of street trees。