City Hall avoids chopping down trees unless...
Published on: Thursday, February 26, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: City Hall has planted more than 3,000 trees in the last two years as part of efforts to make Kota Kinabalu a green city. Its Landscape Department Director Walter Kenson said the department had 3,112 new trees planted in 2013 and 2014 along with a total of 114,148 scrubs."The issues of trees being chopped down are not as severe as many believe. Yes, we do chop down trees but only after thorough consideration is made.
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"Trees are only chopped down if they pose as a hazard to public safety, are already dying or requested by the public because they have grown to be unsafe. Even if the trees were requested to be chopped down, we would first do our own investigation. "We will see if it does pose as a safety hazard and most of the time we don't need to chop it down. We just need to help trim the branches to balance it out and shape it in such a way that when it grows it won't disrupt the public."He said the department avoids chopping any trees unless there is no other option, adding the physical condition and the tree's rooting system will also be considered for any further actions."We do something called topping where the top of the trees, the crown, is chopped and by doing this it will help balance the tree growth. This method helps to manage the trees' growth later on.
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"However, like in a case in Luyang where trees growing by a hillside were slanting toward the houses, this was dangerous as they could fall over anytime. For those trees we had to chop them down."Kenson also said in the case of the trees in Gaya Street, the khaya trees or khaya senegalensis are big growing trees that can grow up to four storeys high.
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"We need to occasionally do topping because they can grow over the buildings and if we were to cut them then, they may damage people's property."It could also grow to be too big for us to use a skylift to manage. Furthermore, another problem we have with the trees in Gaya Street is the birds that live in the trees."Tourists and the public alike have complained that the bird droppings were a nuisance. In one case, one complainant said he parked his car near a hotel there and when he got back it was covered with bird droppings."Kenson said that relocating the trees will pose more problems, therefore the only seemly solution is to do topping now and again. Kenson added that regarding the case of the tree being chopped near Sunny supermarket, it was because this was requested by the Department of Civil Aviation."The tree was on the aerodrome flight path and almost over a storey high, thus it became a hazard to planes landing. So we did topping to balance its branches to ensure it will not grow too high."He also said the trees chosen to be planted are based on the space to plant the tree. If the area is small, only medium size trees are chosen, while if there is an open space, rain trees or large-growing trees are chosen."But we also need to consider the area surrounding the space, if it is by the road we need to choose trees that will not cause hazard later on. If it is by a road shoulder, a different tree would also be selected.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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