Are Tree Lives Worthless? Experts Call for Taiwan, China to Establish a Sound Arboriculture and Tree Preservation System
Typhoons striking Taiwan caused broken branches on more than ten thousand street trees in the south. "Nothing happens without a cause; a healthy tree will not topple for no reason!" pointed out Chen Hung-kai, general manager of Garden Tree Company, noting that on several visits to disaster areas, the fallen trees all showed that "the trees were living very unhealthily!" Either they were infected with brown root rot, which made the base of the root system weak; or the soil was compacted and hardened, causing the roots to grow in an unnatural L shape; and he even saw "diaper trees," street trees whose roots were wrapped in grow bags.
Huang Yu-hsing, director general of the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute (TFRI); Wu Meng-ling, head of the TFRI's Forest Protection Division; and Li Yu-tien, chairman of the Urban Forest Health and Beautification Association, all said that "a tree arborist system is necessary!" Whether it is tree selection, pruning, assessment of mechanical and construction damage, or pest and disease control, arborists need to be involved in order to establish operational guidelines.
How ISA "takes good care of trees"
Li Yu-tien, who had just finished attending the ISA annual conference, said bluntly, "Taiwan's current tree protection practices really lag far behind international standards!" Whether it is nursery seedling cultivation, or tree moving and tree rescue techniques, "there is far too much that needs to be improved."
"Just seeing the tree spade displayed by ISA shocked me!" Li Yu-tien said that while Taiwan is still using excavators to dig up and move trees, the United States is already using "hydraulic tree spades," which not only are less likely to cause tearing-type wounds that affect tissue cell healing, but can even preserve a larger area of the root ball.
Huang Yu-hsing: Everything awaits approval from the Council of Agriculture
"Tree management desperately needs capacity building." Huang Yu-hsing said that although the government already has a certain baseline capacity for tree health management, "we feel it is still insufficient!" There is still a need for professional knowledge and technical personnel to join government agencies and assist the government in formulating policies and implementation measures.
Although the parent law already explicitly stipulates that the Council of Agriculture should establish training, examination and selection, and tiered certification systems, Huang Yu-hsing admitted, "we are still running into bottlenecks."
Huang Yu-hsing said the Forestry Bureau separately consulted the Examination Yuan, the Public Construction Commission, and the Ministry of Labor. The Examination Yuan and the Public Construction Commission believe that under the Forestry Act, forestry, horticulture and related technicians can simply practice, and there is no need to create a separate tree protection technician category; the Ministry of Labor believes that horticulture, landscaping and landscape technicians already exist, so there is no urgent need for tree protection technicians, and further suggests that the Council of Agriculture could, under the authorization of the Industrial Innovation Act, formulate measures to issue arborist licenses.
The TFRI has already drafted the "Implementation Measures for the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, to Issue Industrial Talent Competence Certification," but it still awaits approval from the Council of Agriculture before subsequent work can proceed on building a local arborist certification system and holding arborist examinations.
Huang Yu-hsing said that Taiwan's capacity building has roughly already taken shape, and only the Council of Agriculture's final policy decision remains. "If it is really to be done, the TFRI absolutely will not shirk from doing it!" If the work is delegated to the Forestry Bureau, the TFRI is also willing to assist the Forestry Bureau in establishing the system, hoping to integrate Taiwan's tree management work into the international mainstream as soon as possible.