The Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) has announced that it had recently felled 18 horsetail trees, instead of relocating them, on the waterfront of Patane North Bay, where its ongoing project of building a rainwater pumping station and box culverts got off the ground in the second half of May, after considering that they had started to “decline”.
The horsetail tree is scientifically known as Casuarina equisetifolia.
The bureau made the remarks in a statement on Monday, which came after local Chinese-language media reported that trees on the south-side waterfront of Patane North Bay had been removed over the past week.
The future rainwater pumping station will be located on the south-side waterfront of Patane North Bay, a bay off Fai Chi Kei and Ilha Verde, which is known as Fai Chi Kei North Bay in Cantonese.
The project, which started in the second half of May, is scheduled to be completed in 2025.
In addition to the rainwater pumping station, the project includes the construction of a 170-metre section of box culverts along Rua do Comandante João Belo (俾若翰街/筷子基北街), i.e., the south-side waterfront of Patane North Bay. In addition, a waterfront sitting-out area will also be built there.
The project also includes the construction of a 268-metre section of box culverts along the nearby Rua da Doca Seca (船澳街).
The felled trees were located on the waterfront Rua do Comandante João Belo. The ongoing project requires the relocation or removal of the trees there.
Monday’s IAM statement noted that the trees on Rua do Comandante João Belo affected by the project included horsetail trees, Sterculia lanceolata, and Cinnamomum burmanni.
The statement said that the bureau had relocated two Sterculia lanceolata from Rua do Comandante João Belo after confirming that both were in a healthy condition.
The statement pointed out that horsetail trees have a relatively short life cycle. The statement noted that the 18 horsetail trees on the waterfront Rua do Comandante João Belo had already entered their “declining” life cycles when they were felled. In addition, the statement said, the horsetail trees had been in a poor condition after having been hit by several strong typhoons over the past few years.
Consequently, the statement said, the bureau concluded that the horsetail trees ran the risk of collapse or some of their branches breaking off, because of which the bureau decided to remove all of them.
The statement also noted that the bureau had felled two Cinnamomum burmanni on Rua do Comandante João Belo last year after concluding that both were on the brink of collapse when they were diagnosed with root rot.
A car drives past a section of Rua do Comandante João Belo in Fai Chi Kei on Monday where horsetail trees had been felled (previously located where the traffic cones have been placed). – Photo courtesy of TDM
