I don’t live in TW anymore but follow news and events about the island. What I’ve seen lately are stories about a massive culling of trees in Taipei. The sources are from Threads and claim 3000-4000 trees have been removed. Photos show stumps left behind. It’s hard to imagine there’s that many diseased trees needing removal. What other excuse is there? Curious what the commentariat adds here
Looks like routine maintenance despite some online conspiracies making the rounds.
Not sure how many trees are usually taken down annually. A great survey map of trees in Taipei can be found at this site.
I can tell you that near my area a lot of trees were taking down and they just covered with concrete. I saw people with some device checking the trees health before, and some of the tree removed the trunk had a whole in the middle. It’s strange that they don’t put new ones, they also don’t cut the grass as often as before.
Preventing typhoon damage is not a good enough reason for cutting down trees. Trees mitigate heat island effect, which lasts continuously for months. Typhoons come just half a dozen times a year, and the vast majority of trees survive the typhoons.
