Singapore prides itself on being a Garden City and, over the years, I have enjoyed the beauty, shade and serenity provided by our gardens and parks, as well as the mature trees lining our neighbourhood streets and roads.

However, in recent years, I have observed many instances of indiscriminate felling of mature trees around the Telok Blangah precincts, including the popular Mount Faber Park.

The trees probably took 30 to 40 years to grow and mature into tall, shady and magnificent beauties - enhancing and "softening" our heartland landscape, as well as providing cool shade to shelter us from the constant tropical heat.

I witnessed at least three mature trees being cut down along Telok Blangah Rise, including two Yellow Flames, on Feb 4. Such occurrences are a cause for concern and alarm.

Over the past three years, I have also observed many mature trees being cut down and removed at Mount Faber Park and its surrounding areas.

Hill slopes that appeared in stable condition were dug up and transformed into concrete ones. Even if they were indeed facing soil erosion, I believe there are more ingenious and cost-effective solutions than concretisation.

Another observation is the constant pollarding of our roadside trees that have sadly reduced their beautiful, stately appearance to an awkward and undignified one. Is there a real need for such frequent pollarding to the detriment of the trees?

Shouldn't we be growing more trees and protecting the existing ones to mitigate the growing threat of global warming and climate change?

Tan Aik Kee

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/forum/alarmed-about-cutting-down-of-mature-trees