Mandai forest storm damage worst in 20 years

Koh Hui Theng The New Paper 2 Mar 11;

TREES, some not yet in their prime, were thrashed, twisted and mercilessly detopped. Two weeks after an intense storm hit Mandai, the helpless victims of unpredictable wind and rain are still visible.

Nature Society president Dr Shawn Lum calls it the largest tree fall that he has seen in 20 years.

"It looks like someone used a giant weed wacker to cut through the forest," he said.

Some 10,000 trees from 150 species were damaged in the 40 ha zone, which is as big as 80 football fields. NParks' director for conservation Wong Tuan Wah said the wreckage stretched 1.2km - from Lorong Lada Hitam to Mandai Lake Road near the Singapore Zoo.

The havoc wreaked by Mother Nature was unexpected. It's supposed to be the dry season, the hotter phase of the north-east monsoon.

But on the afternoon of Feb 11, thunderstorms, heavy rain and strong winds, up to 77.8km/h, lashed the area for several hours, said a National Environment Agency (NEA) spokesman.

Dr Lum, who is also a National Institute of Education scientist, said the small, exposed clusters of forests in Mandai made the trees more susceptible to wind action.

"The area looks awful because high-velocity winds appeared to snap many of the trees in half," he added.

Hard timber or soft wood, the trees looked painful in their death throes. Trunks the size of a man's leg were twisted at right angles. Others had split into jagged shards.

Still, there is a silver lining.

The affected secondary forest supports less diverse flora and fauna than virgin forests. Younger trees, all below 100 years old, can grow back relatively quickly.

"Many saplings managed to escape the worst... within five years, faster-growing species will spring up and colonise the place, so what happened was most likely not that disastrous," Dr Lum said.

Mr Wong said reforestation will be carried out through the Plant-A-Tree programme. Members of the public can e-mail garden_city_fund@nparks.gov.sg to help.