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The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) announced today (October 9) that with the assistance of overseas tree experts, the department had completed the inspection of the trees listed on the Register of Old and Valuable Trees (OVTs) that are under its management.
This inspection exercise covers 499 OVTs listed in the register. Inspection results have revealed that the majority of these OVTs are in healthy condition. Some of them require basic treatment, including application of insecticide, installation of cable bracings and pruning of dead branches. The department has started the treatment work and will continue to closely monitor the condition of these OVTs and carry out the necessary treatment for their continued healthy growth.
Following thorough examination of the tree inspection results by LCSD in consultation with the local tree expert group, LCSD decided to remove five trees due to their poor condition and potential danger to the public. There are no practicable measures to keep them. Resulting from this tree inspection exercise, four OVTs have already been removed (registration numbers WTS/1, YTM/71, SSP/13 and N/48). With these five to be removed, the total number is 1.8% of the OVTs under the department's management.
The five OVTs that need to be removed are: a Fiddle-leaved Fig (Ficus lyrata) and a Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria heterophylla) in Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, with respective registration numbers CW/45 and CW/70; a Chinese Hackberry (Celtis sinensis), E/6, in Lei Yue Mun Park; a South China Honeylocust (Gleditsia fera), E/37, in Victoria Park; and a Lebbeck Tree (Albizia lebbeck), S/19, at South Bay Beach.
After examining the inspection results in detail together with the local tree expert group, the department considers that the trees are in poor health condition and have no chance of recovery. They pose a potential danger to the public. Since there is no feasible measure to stabilise them or improve their health, the department has decided to remove them for public safety. The condition of the five trees are listed in the appendix.
The department stressed that it would continue to adopt a prudent approach in managing its trees. Only when there was no feasible measure to keep a tree would it be removed as a last resort to protect public safety.
The department started the inspection exercise of the trees in the Register in late August. In order to strengthen and speed up the tree inspection work, the department enlisted the support of US arborists.
Ends/Thursday, October 9, 2008
Issued at HKT 18:15
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