New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) yesterday called for laws prohibiting the sale of wood obtained by contractors pruning urban trees.
At a news conference held by Chen at the Legislative Yuan, Kaohsiung Tree Lovers’ Association chief executive Chuang Chieh-jen (莊傑仁) said that his research shows that tree-pruning contractors benefit from selling wood gathered during work on public trees to mushroom growers, as the NT$12 billion (US$401.31 million) industry requires large amounts of sawdust.
Chuang said that vendors buy wood to process into sawdust and are offering NT$1,600 to NT$2,300 per tonne, regardless of wood type.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Chuang said that it is a well-known method for contractors to increase profit margins, citing how contractors at Kaohsiung’s Jhongsing Park in Hunei District (湖內) separated wood according to its value and placed different piles onto separate trucks.
“I wonder if the aggressive pruning of trees nationwide could be considered illegally selling national property,” he said.
The government should establish regulations to prohibit the illegitimate sale of wood obtained from pruning, Chen said, adding that the Forestry Act (森林法) should be amended to include more regulations on tree pruning and fines for those who breach the law.
Taipei City Tree Protection Committee member Ho Cheng-han (何承翰) said that government agencies view trees as just environmental aesthetics, and are prone to hire contractors at a minimal cost.
They are unaware that excessive pruning of trees could cause the tree to slowly die, which would create a hazard with the risk that the dead tree could fall on a person or a car, Ho said.
Lin Ko-yen (林科言), the Forestry Bureau’s Reforestation and Production Bureau senior specialist, said that driftwood was the result of natural disasters, as opposed to wood generated from tree pruning, which is a result of artificial means.
Wood from pruning trees should be considered government property and the authority hiring the contractor should state so in the contract, Lin said, adding that failure to do so should involve a review from the accounting or ethics departments.
Setting up storage for pruned wood would increase overhead costs for schools and other organizations, Lin said, adding that contracts should state how much wood should be removed.
National Property Administration Division of Take-over and Custody head Tsai Fang-yi (蔡芳宜) said that environmental groups’ concern as yet have no legal basis for redress and contracts can only request that the contractor deliver the wood to be incinerated.
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