NEO CHAI CHIN Today Online 10 Nov 14;
SINGAPORE — The Republic’s green spaces will be part of its 50th birthday celebrations next year, with roadside greenery to be spruced up, more trees to be planted and public events to be hosted at parks.
From the third quarter of next year, the iconic rain trees along a 3.4km stretch of East Coast Parkway (ECP) that greet travellers from Changi Airport will be specially lit up to showcase their beauty at night.
Additional planting and landscaping will also be done along the ECP and four other expressways, as well as major roads in the civic and Central Business District, said Minister of State (National Development) Desmond Lee yesterday as he announced the National Parks Board’s (NParks) SG50 plans.
Free concerts will be held at six parks and gardens here — starting with Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park next March — with local talents performing jazz, classical and contemporary music as well as xinyao. The other parks hosting concerts include Admiralty Park in May and the Singapore Botanic Gardens in August.
And 50 Community In Bloom groups will come together to create five garden displays at the HortPark from March. A mass tree-planting exercise will take place next September and October, with 5,000 more trees to be planted at the park connectors, parks and nature ways.
Mr Lee was speaking at the launch of the Jurong Spring Nature Way, a 5.3km route from Jurong Lake Park to the Western Catchment area that aims to attract more birds and butterflies through specific trees and shrubs planted. The endangered native Yellow Cow Wood tree, for instance, is a host plant for several butterfly species such as the Archduke and Short Banded Sailor, while the Small-leafed Oil-fruit tree bears fruit eaten by birds such as the Yellow-vented Bulbul and Pink-necked Pigeon. The nature way, which winds through largely residential areas, is one of eight here with a combined length of 43.3km.
NParks deputy chief executive Leong Chee Chiew said the nature ways would allow everyday encounters with birds and butterflies, such as on walks home from the MRT station.
Jurong resident Thilagar Ragavan, 13, welcomed the possibility of seeing more wildlife but hoped existing species of beetles and other insects would not be affected. His friend, Gangababu Giry Thara Prasath, 15, said the sightings could spur an interest among the youth to know more about various animal species.
Asked how roadside greenery would be enhanced for SG50, Dr Leong said more varieties of trees would be planted — similar to what has been done along newer roads — to create a more natural look. And where roads have been widened, NParks tries to replant big specimens to get back the mature greenery as quickly as possible. “When you remove mature trees, there’s going to be a gap between the removal of the tree and eventual growth of a new plant,” he explained.
The special lighting of the stretch of the ECP would showcase the sculptural beauty of the rain trees, said Dr Leong, who is also Commissioner of Parks and Recreation. “We’ll be quite careful about how bright (the lights) should be and where (they) should point and so on … we will try our best to make it pretty without being overwhelming,” he said.
Meanwhile, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Grace Fu said she hoped to see more corporations step forward to participate in the SG50 celebrations. Speaking at the Great Eastern Women’s Run organised by the insurer yesterday, Ms Fu commended the firm’s move to offer free insurance for Jubilee-year babies next year.
“I’m happy to see that many corporates are stepping up. SG50 shouldn’t be the Government’s way of celebrating the Jubilee year. It should be everyone in Singapore, all corporates stepping in and doing their part. We hope more companies will also join in,” she said.
NParks to mark SG50 by beautifying expressways
Aw Cheng Wei The Straits Times AsiaOne 12 Nov 14;
Singapore's expressways will be dressed up for SG50 celebrations next year.
Roadside greenery along the five major expressways, including the East Coast Parkway and Pan-Island Expressway, will have additional landscaping as part of the National Parks Board's (NParks) plans to celebrate the nation's golden jubilee.
This is being done to make the expressways "even more distinctive and beautiful", said Mr Desmond Lee, Minister of State for National Development.
He revealed NParks' celebratory plans yesterday at the launch of the new Jurong Spring Nature Way, which spans 5.3km, connecting the Western Catchment Area to the upcoming Jurong Lake Gardens.
As part of the festivities, a 3.4km stretch of road from Changi Airport will also be installed with special lighting among its overlapping canopy of raintrees.
A tender is being called for the new lights, and they are expected to be installed by September next year.
NParks' deputy chief executive, Dr Leong Chee Chiew, said: "Our lush roadside greenery must continue to differentiate us from other cities."
As part of NParks' SG50 celebrations, there will be a series of six free concerts at locations such as Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Botanic Gardens and Admiralty Park.
Over at HortPark, some 50 community groups will create garden showcases at five gardens.
Meanwhile, a photography competition to encourage people to share their favourite photographs of parks and gardens is under way. The closing date for the first of four themes is on Jan 7.
Mr Lee, who is an MP for Jurong GRC, noted that there will be something "different and interesting" for everyone.
Coinciding with SG50 is the 25th anniversary of Singapore's park connectors. To celebrate this, a mass tree planting initiative with some 5,000 trees will be carried out at 50 places.
NParks nursery to be opened to public for the first time
Alice Chia Channel NewsAsia 10 Nov 14;
SINGAPORE: This Saturday (Nov 15), the National Parks Board's (NParks) nursery in Pasir Panjang will throw open its doors to the public for the first time.
The series of guided tours arranged by NParks was fully subscribed within two days. About 200 people have signed up for the tours, organised in conjunction with the Clean and Green Singapore 2015 campaign.
Set up in the 1970s, the 12-hectare Pasir Panjang Nursery supplies close to 200,000 plants a year to green Singapore's roads and parks. At any one time, the nursery is stocked with over 3,000 species of plants. Around 80 per cent of them are native plants. The rest come from countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
With about 100 rare species, one of the highlights that tour participants will get to see is the Singapore Kopsia, a tree with distinctive white flowers.
The tree can only be found in fresh water swamp forests and is critically endangered, with fewer than 50 mature trees in Singapore.
Even the nursery's canal has been turned into a flowering oasis, with over 50 types of aquatic plants.
"The spread of plants in Pasir Panjang Nursery is important to us because of the nature areas that we have in Singapore, for our parks and streetscapes,” said Mr Ng Cheow Kheng, director of horticulture and community gardening at the National Parks Board.
“It is so important to bring back the species that were here originally and to propagate them so that we have enough of these seedlings and saplings to be grown all over Singapore.
“Why is it important for biodiversity? Because we want to bring back some of the native birds, butterflies, dragonflies - all the desirable animal life in Singapore. We need them to have a healthy living environment."
During the tour, NParks officers will also share what they do in their daily operations. "We work with our colleagues from parks, streetscapes and conservation, so that they will go and look for the plants during mass flowering and fruit season in the forests,” said Mr Ng. “Then we collect all the seeds, bring back to propagate them and germinate so that they can be re-introduced into the environment."
Seeds and saplings are typically grown at the nursery for around three to six months, before they are planted island-wide.
NParks said it will gauge the response from the public and decide whether to open up more tours in future.
- CNA/ek
NParks nursery opens for rare tour
Feng Zengkun The Straits Times AsiaOne 11 Nov 14;
All 60 places for a rare chance to see where some of Singapore's park and roadside trees and plants come from were snapped up within hours yesterday.
The National Parks Board (NParks) had announced yesterday morning that it will open the Pasir Panjang Nursery, its only nursery, to the public for a rare guided tour this Saturday.
By evening, all places have been taken, but NParks said it will consider having more tours in future.
The nursery tour is organised in conjunction with the year-long Clean and Green Singapore 2015 campaign, which aims to inspire Singaporeans to protect the environment.
The Pasir Panjang Nursery is about 12ha, or the size of 30 football fields, and supplies close to 200,000 plants each year to green the island's roads and parks.
Most of the plants provided by the nursery are native to Singapore and are not easily available in commercial nurseries.
It also sources for plants from countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand to increase the variety of plants used in NParks' planting programmes.
The nursery's inventory includes trees, shrubs, herbs, fruit trees, aquatic plants and more.
To support the conservation of Singapore's native species, NParks officers also collect seeds and saplings of native plants from forests and parks across Singapore every week, so they can be grown in the nursery until they are ready to be planted islandwide.
NParks chief executive Kenneth Er said the nursery is a key part in Singapore's greening efforts.
"Decades of our pioneers' hard work... have enabled us to reap the benefits of the verdant landscape.
"(The tour) is one way of inspiring the community to continue in the shared responsibility of carrying on Singapore's greening journey," he said.
