What works in the forest may not work in a garden

Straits Times Forum 16 Oct 12;

WHILE it is laudable that the Bird Ecology Study Group will compile an archive listing more than 200 species of flora and detailing birds that frequent them ("Matching trees and birds"; Oct 6), planners such as the National Parks Board should exercise prudence and care when using such resources to decide what and what not to plant in our parks and gardens, in their effort to attract fauna.

The finding that the common mahang, a tree found in our forests here, draws more than 20 bird species to its fruit does not recognise the fact that a tree growing in a forest, when grown in our gardens and parks, might not attract an equal number of bird species.

Birds that are forest-dependent will not visit the same mahang tree grown in a garden or park that is outside the forest.

If the fruits of the mahang tree draw the liking, too, of the noisy Asian glossy starlings or mynahs, we might even inadvertently propagate more roosting sites for these community roosting birds - a scenario we do not want.

The common mahang tree is also well known for attracting ants to its leaf stalks.

The presence of ants and the consequences when one unwittingly touches them, or if they drop on someone standing below the tree, also need to be taken into consideration.

The safety of the public is of paramount concern.

While we would certainly like to see a "City in a Garden" full of life and biodiversity, we must also be cognisant of the fact that what works in one place might not work in another.

No one size fits all.

Even lizards and butterflies have their own niches and will not readily adapt to a habitat unfamiliar and foreign to them.

Certainly, a lot more experimenting and study of what we want to plant has to be done first before we embark on planting any one species of flora.

Chia Yong Soong

Plant the right trees or risk attracting the wrong birds
Straits Times Forum 16 Oct 12;

THE Bird Ecology Study Group should be commended for compiling an archive that will list more than 200 species of flora and detail the birds frequenting them ("Matching trees and birds"; Oct 6).

But planting a common mahang tree outside the forest environment will not attract the same species and number of birds. This is because forest-specific birds like the cream-vented bulbuls, red-eyed bulbuls and red-crowned barbets will not move out of the forest habitats to urban parkland to forage.

Planting food trees outside the reserves may instead attract the more adaptable Asian glossy starlings and mynas, whose populations the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority is trying to control.

Botanists know that many of the wild scrubs and trees do not grow well or even survive outside the forest without the support of the ecosystem. Such trees are not used in our parks and open spaces. On the other hand, fig trees, with their root systems, are destructive to buildings, homes and roads.

The best way to protect biodiversity is to conserve their habitats, which cannot be replicated. You cannot "grow" back a primary forest.

Hospitals, community development councils, schools and corporations have been drawing from the database of the National Parks Board and the Nature Society (Singapore) for many years now to create butterfly- and bird-friendly trails, gardens and open spaces. Let us hope the Bird Ecology Study Group's archive can supplement the existing databases for the greater good.

Alan Owyong