Six tembusu trees removed from MacRitchie Reservoir Park for public safety reasons: NParks

SINGAPORE – Six tembusu trees at the MacRitchie Reservoir Park had been removed by the National Parks Board (NParks), it said in a media reply on Sept 11.

This comes after a post in the Nature Society Singapore’s Public Forum Facebook page, where a group member posted images of several tree stumps which he said were near the Paddle Lodge, and wondered what had happened.

In the media reply, NParks group director of parks central Jillian Lim said the trees were removed for public safety reasons on Sept 2.

“During our regular tree inspections, these trees were assessed to be unhealthy, with decay and structural defects,” she said.

She added that a variety of native species will be planted at the site to replace the trees that were removed.

On Facebook, the man who posted about the tree stumps said he found a large hole in one of the stumps, but could not see anything wrong with the rest.

“I’m not suggesting that these particular trees were cut down without good reason: There may well be problems that aren’t visible from the stumps,” he said.

“I’m more curious about the broader question of how we balance public safety with preserving mature trees. Some risk is probably unavoidable with large old trees, while their ecological and landscape value takes decades to replace.”