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CITY HALL has dealt with a total of 731 trees over the past few months as part of its scheduled maintenance of the greenery growing on three main roads within the agency’s rating-area. 

The agency is also keeping an eye on the goings-on in one part of Likas to ensure that the brightness of the streetlights does not become obscured because of the overgrown trees in the vicinity.

The latter action was prompted by feedback from a Taman Likas Jaya resident who was unhappy about the poor illumination along the road leading to her house.

She provided Hotline with the pertinent details regarding her grievance, which were forwarded to City Hall.

A spokeswoman for the agency’s Landscaping Department said it was in the midst of pruning the trees on the dividers along Jalan Tuaran – between Inanam and Manggatal – and Jalan Sepanggar.

“About 217 Cabbage Trees [‘Andira inermis’] have been dealt with on the first road and 254 Tanjong Trees [‘Mimusops elengi’] so far,” she said.

“Our Tree Management Unit (TMU) finished attending to the trees growing on Jalan Lintas, between Kepayan and Inanam, earlier this month.”

She said 254 Cinnamon Trees [“Cinnamomum iners”] were trimmed in this instance.

“Landscaping personnel removed any creepers and offshoots of existing trees, which had sprung up. They also chopped down six dead trees from the median on Jalan Lintas.”

The spokeswoman said 25 dead or diseased trees were felled by City Hall between January and March as part of an endeavour to mitigate tree-related hazards around the State Capital.

Four different teams with its TMU removed 15 trees in January, nine in February and one in March, according to her, under the agency’s “Ops Pokok Sihat, Bandar Selamat” (Healthy Trees, Safer City Operation). 

“The Operation aims to safeguard the public from the potential danger posed by falling trees or broken branches.”

She said the Unit’s members had made it their goal this year to ensure that all the trees, maintained by City Hall, were safe and healthy.

“TMU staff will check on the health of these trees regularly and will prune them according to a schedule to minimise the safety risks posed by this greenery.”

She said any trees deemed to be a high risk would be chopped down, while those of a low risk would be trimmed.

“By ‘high risk’ we mean dead trees or those which are diseased,” she explained.

She said 15 separate checks had been made by the TMU teams between Jan 9 and March 4 at 12 various locations under the agency’s purview.

These locations included sections of Taman Malawa Jaya Sepanggar Phase 1C-3, Jalan Udan Inanam, Jalan Tuaran (Likas), The Inanam Bus Terminal, Jalan Tuaran Bypass, Jalan Tun Fuad Stephens, Jalan Lintas (City Mall), the Anjung Senja foodcourt, Gaya Street, Jalan Belia (UTC), Jalan Lintas Square Luyang and Kepayan Petagas.

Where Taman Likas Jaya was concerned, the spokeswoman said an inspection was made of Lorong Burung Kenari, shortly after it was contacted by the media.

She said its personnel confirmed that the trees along the stretch had not been planted by City Hall. They had been growing wild on the road shoulder.

“Eight of our workers returned to the neighbourhood a few days later,” she said. “Some of them carried chainsaws which they used to prune those branches that had encroached into the airspace of the streetlights along the road.” 

“One of our skylifts and an eight-tonne truck were deployed to facilitate these efforts.”

When asked how often the trees there were trimmed, she said such maintenance was carried out on an ad hoc basis, as and when it was needed.

“Nevertheless, in the interest of ensuring that the streetlights remain operational and in good order, our staff have been asked to keep an eye on the condition of this greenery and to deal with any irregularities accordingly.”