Town Council Needs Help Managing Trees

Singapore is mostly boring, and that is a good thing.

Trains and buses arrive on time, elevators work, and drinking water straight out of a tap is generally safe.

However, when it comes to town council tree management, there is space for improvement.

On 27th Aug 2020, our principal arborist saw fungal fruiting bodies and a crack on a tree. These are clear signs of imminent failure. So he did the right thing and contacted the town council using OneService.

To their credit the town council replied in a timely manner.

Red circle around the fungal fruiting bodies, red arrow pointing at the crack

Case closed. Problem solved right?

Not quite. When our principal arborist passed by the area on 14th Sep 2020, he discovered the tree was heavily pruned.

Not the right type of tree work needed

The horticulture team dispatched by the Town Council had done something, but the actions taken were entirely inappropriate for the issue.

The tree’s defects meant that the tree should have been removed, not pruned.

Sure enough, around midnight on 15th Sep 2020, the tree failed.

An avoidable error

Nobody was injured, and nothing was damaged, but this incident does show that there are gaps in our town council’s tree management regime that need to be filled.