In recent years we have seen the rise of the fashion of installing lightning rods on large trees located in the Taiwan plains. In Nantou, NT$700,000 was spent on installing the latest type of alloyed rod on a 300-year old camphor tree. Now Tai-chung and Ilan want to follow suit with their various old trees.

Installing lightning rods on trees? It is quite tragic really, because there are actually hardly any old trees left in the plains area.

Flowers on the trunk of the large-leaved banyan. Such trunk flowering is particular to species of the tropical rain forest.

A place with no old trees:

Three years ago the Taiwan Provincial Government' s Department of Agriculture and Forestry (D.A.F.) initiated a plan to survey and protect valuable old trees in national forests. Over three years Taiwan's counties and cities. outside of Taipei and Kaohsiung, have listed over 800 trees as being more than 100 years old, with trunks of at least 4.7 meters in circumference--about what four people could embrace by joining hands. However, among the five cities (including Keelung) not even one tree coming up to these standards has yet been discovered.

We can infer from historical records and Taiwan's warm and humid climate that the plains originally had a great variety and quantity of large trees. Yet it was in this area that the chances of coming into competition with human beings were highest. That meant the rate of felling was also higher.

The large trees that have survived until today cannot be compared to the thousand-year-old ancient trees of the mountains. It is only because the trees of warmer regions grow very quickly that many of them are only a few centuries old. That there are any large trees to preserve these days at all is still mostly due to the fact that those which have survived do not have any high commercial value. Such is the case with the banyan, the timber of which is easily distorted; the Formosan sweet gum, which people do not like to cut because it bleeds red sap; and the autumn maple tree with its knotty trunk. Together, these make up more than half the old trees presently listed by the D.A.F.

Thanks to the temples many old trees are left standing. Many people establish temples to the earth nearby. Old trees can also be said to be possessed by fairy spirits, a taboo which nobody would dare risk breaking. They have thus been preserved down to today.

When a large banyan tree was "unfortunately" growing where a highway was planned to be widened at Toucheng in Ilan, the housing department's urban planning section demanded that the local authorities remove it. In the end, a nearby temple gave up its own land for the road to pass through and the tree was saved.

The twisted aerial roots of the banyan tree make for oases of shade that can be found all over the plains of Taiwan. （photo by Pu Hua-chih）

From trees outnumbering people, to more people than trees:

In the past, trees outnumbered people and there was not the pressing need we have today to conserve green resources. Yet, at present, national and communal woods of the mountain and river areas aside, there has been a longstanding lack of regulations governing the proportion of land allotted for building purposes, apart from on highways and in public parks. Development plans for residential and industrial-commercial areas still do not take into consideration the conservation and exploitation of green resources. The method of planting trees along highways that we do have is really just an administrative order, while in fact the building of roads is still very much engineering led. It only takes the engineering units concerned to put forward so-called "restoration plans," and permission will be granted to fell hundred-year-old trees anyway.

It could be said that, right up until today, urban trees are still being taken out, regardless of size, for the convenience of planning. This means that most of the trees in the plains are either newly planted or have recently been transplanted. The tiny number of big trees that might be of some material use live not knowing whether they will survive another day.

The trees we have been left with are actually those which planted themselves naturally, then grew up in an environment changed by human beings. Many of them are unable to adjust to their new surroundings and gradually wither away. Due to the pace of development, environmental destruction and the felling of trees with commercial value, the surviving large trees are often left standing in isolation, far from the mutual protection that is available among the trees of the mountain forests. Standing alone in fields, on flat wastes, or in villages, these large trees are the most exposed targets for bolts of lightning.

The plains trees are like Taipei's North Gate:

Hu Ta-wei, director of the forestry department at the Chinese Culture University and a teacher of the subject for many decades, says that when large trees are isolated they cannot actually go on living. It is only those trees which have been around for a few hundred years that do not die easily. As strong typhoons come and break off their branches, the condition of these trees gradually worsens. After a few years of this process, "All that is left are a few of the older and more patient brothers."

The old trees of the plains are much like the cultural treasures of a city which must be able to endure economic progress and the onslaught of urban expansion. Those that are lucky enough to survive end up like Taipei's North Gate--squeezed in between flyovers, sticking out and unseemly. If they survive, it is at the expense of their dignity.

Unless people give this some special thought, it will be very hard to grow large trees again in the environment we live in today. This can be seen when a road is asphalted over and holes are dug for replanting the trees: Even after another three or five years, they probably won't grow another inch.

We do not know how the world is going to change in the future. "We have no way to control a future global nuclear war," says ecologist Chen Ming-yi, who emphasizes that people must use all their efforts to let the old trees live for a few more generations so that our descendants can still see something of the world's original countenance. Otherwise, when we tell students in the future how big a tree can grow, they might well not believe us. Much less do we have the ability to create the landscape of large trees. Anything we might contrive will undoubtedly be very different. Not having any way to preserve this natural landscape which will be so hard to recreate will be the equivalent of cutting short its eternal value at our generation.

Breathing historical relics:

When compared to archaeological relics, the difference is that old trees are still alive. They can still excrete oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide, provide cool shade and maintain an ideal living environment.

In Ilan, for example, there are many places where old trees are preserving green areas. By a winding brook the shade of a tall tree allows grass to grow, flowers to blossom, supporting various plants and attracting birds. It can also act as a place where people like to gather. Chen Ming-yi says of a small village in Taichung, "If I lived here, this tree would be enough to allow me to do some bird watching."

There are still many green resources left in the mountains, where people can drive their cars to the forests for their vacations, the Forestry Administration having recently planned various recreation areas there. Yet it is really the old roadside banyan tree that has a place in the feelings of most people. So many of us can remember climbing trees to look for birds' nests in our childhood, perhaps gazing into the distance, sitting alone there to heal our wounds after a good hiding, or leaning against the old tree when you did not dare go home following some misdemeanor. Things have changed, however, and today's generation has not grown up with the old tree out front or in the village.

Although the mountain forests play the role of looking after human life and property through their conservation of water resources and securing the soil, they have no way of replacing or making up for the shortfall of green resources in today's living environment. Yet trees in the city are actually the best way of keeping down things like atmospheric pollution and severe heat. This makes trees the preservers of a good quality of life that we really cannot do without. Yet the strength of patience possessed by city dwellers seems to be the stronger.

Old trees are in fact a kind of living indicator, telling us which conditions are best for providing for the survival of nature's myriad creations. They might drop leaves out of time, or not blossom when they should, or wither without cause--and when even trees cannot live, this probably expresses that the conditions for human survival are also pretty atrocious. The condition of trees today is proof of many things and reflects various phenomena. The times at which trees exist and die can provide us with much information. Even investigations into Taiwan's conservational history can look to the clues in old trees for information.

The teaching of the beefwood tree:

Kuo Pao-chang takes as an example a beefwood tree in Pingtung's park which is at least a hundred years old. The beefwood was not originally one of Taiwan's indigenous tree species, and this one's age dates it back to about the same time as when the species arrived from Australia. This is not only historical proof of the time at which the species arrived in Taiwan; it also lets us know that it is not the short-lived species we previously imagined it to be. Taiwan's coastal forests are at present 90 percent beefwood, but these trees seem to only have a short life of not even 20 years. Many botanists have put this down to the fact that it is a poor quality species destroying Taiwan's coastal environment. But the beefwood itself has now let people know that its poor quality is probably actually due to human agency or environmental problems.

No matter how much people berate the beefwood, today it makes up the main strength of Taiwan's wind-barrier coastal forests. It can withstand drought and fight the wind. At least we still have it to act as a green guarantor in the coastal forests we have destroyed. Kuo Pao-chang thinks that researchers will be able to come up with ways to let the coastal beefwood live for 50 or 100 years, just like the one in Pingtung. Then, under its strength and protective environment, Taiwan's indigenous tree species can be replanted to recover the original face of Taiwan's coast.

The admirers of old trees are not just to be found among students of forestry. With industrial pollution entering the world's atmosphere, researchers have to get an understanding of past changes that have occurred in the earth's climate. The study of the yearly growth circles in old trees to reveal past climatic changes has become an important scientific discipline.

Yet looking at old trees only in terms of conserving green resources is still not enough, because local history can also be brought to life by an old tree, and many places even take their names from old trees. Such is the case with Tree King Village in Taichung County, where local records are constantly linked with the village's old tree. When a revered autumn maple tree in Taichung County had its one-hundredth birthday last year, many people came to pay their respects from sacred autumn maple trees all over Taiwan.

Installing lightning rods:

"The value of an old tree represents a kind of knowledge, a historical process that we should know about," says Kuo Pao-chang. It is just like when students of architecture busy themselves looking at the special qualities of the ancient capital city because it has artistic reference value. What the ancient capital preserves is a standard of civilization. People spend a lot of resources on restoring old relics in the hope of extending their lives, and to go on supplying humanity with a variety of different values.

The significance of conserving old trees is much the same, which is why countries throughout the world are striving to conserve them. In France there is a 270-year-old tree which has already dried out inside. The French government had no alternative but to cut it down, but also spent a lot of money on using the latest technology to take cuttings. These were grafted onto another tree to produce buds which were then transplanted to a laboratory for cultivation. It is hoped that the genes can be preserved in order to reproduce the same tree in the future.

The D.A.F. has also been treating with more respect those trees which have passed through a hundred years of Taiwan's history, installing lightning rods on solitary trees out on the open plains without taller buildings nearby. "Although they are ugly, they are still very necessary," says Chen Ming-yi. Not only do they mean that there is no need to worry about the tree being split and set on fire by lightning, but also that any wounds which might easily be rotted by germs and parasites can be prevented.

Under the greenwood tree:

From the perspective of the laws of nature, the human implement of a lightning rod is something that goes against the grain. However, if large trees could survive in their original natural habitats, or in agricultural societies where they would be surrounded by paddy fields, then the water and fertilizers they require would be freely absorbed by every leaf and there would be no need for human care. But today's changing environment makes urgent the tasks of providing help such as the application of fertilizer and the turning of the soil.

Many trees are actually kept in concrete troughs. Although this might limit growth, it is still a necessary measure. This is because visitors tend to park their cars in a tree's shadow. The ground then gets compressed and trampled down for long periods and the soil is ruined. The growth of old trees will be affected, not to mention other shrubs and grass. All that can be done is to ask for the tree's trough to be widened as much as possible, and for the concrete to be changed to bricks through which water can pass.

In fact, trees living in a human environment have already come to perform functions which are very different from those of the large trees of the mountains. The installation of a lightning rod, various protective measures, one or two tables laid out, a chess board built in, and tree trough design comes alive. Chen Ming-yi, Lo Hua-juan and other old-tree "gardeners" hope that people will always be able to get close to trees and use them as natural resources, with large trees becoming places for people to rest and gather.

Big trees from little shoots do grow:

The decline of large trees is representative of the deterioration of the environment we live in. Perhaps we cannot preserve past modes of living, yet in our artificial surroundings we are always searching for a more suitable environment in which to exist.

The higher the degree of urbanization, the more concrete and steel rods there are around us, the less daily contact we can have with green nature. The functions of trees placed in concrete are still limited, though, while being able to enjoy the cool breeze of nature and breathing fresh air are things that have become wishes in our sphere of life.

"With air pollution and a rough landscape, it is trees that can best improve the environment and landscape we live in," says Lo Hua-juan.

It is just that people are all too clear that the sights and sounds of the city are not as good as taking the family to sit in a traffic jam to visit nature. Yet if people do not preserve the green resources that are in front of their eyes, how can they appreciate the green seas of the deep mountains? Environmental education must start with what is immediately present. How can the urban wasteland, featuring not even the slightest bit of greenery, infuse the next generation with a passion to love and protect green resources? It is only if we can preserve the green resources in our living environment that we can lessen the damage done by so many feet trampling in the deep mountains, thus avoiding the decline of the soil-preserving forests through the pressure of too much recreational use.

Hualien raises tomorrow's stars:

So today's conservation of old trees is really but a means, while the end is the protection and preservation of every tree in our lives. After all, great trees from little trees do grow. We cannot preserve all our trees by hanging red ribbons on them to symbolize their divinity or by placing little earth temples by their sides.

Many forestry researchers even think that we should not make mistakes in our teaching by overdoing the mystique of trees and exaggerating their ages. "The D.A.F.'s standards are just for convenience of administration," says Lo Hua-juan. It is certainly not the case that those trees which fall just below the mark, being either not big enough or not small enough, and are not on the "treasure list," should not be treated well by people.

The D.A.F. hopes that those counties and cities which have not yet discovered even a single tree that comes up to its standards will loosen the criteria a bit and look at the situation in their own localities to list trees for protection. Only if we begin now to protect trees in the cities, towns and villages, can we begin to develop our own "promising stars." Such is the case with the urban area that has most big trees of all, Hualien County. Here progress has been made by the listing of 3,000 trees with a diameter of more than 50 centimeters and the use of bylaws to punish those who damage trees.

A tree in a hundred years:

Although the Agriculture and Forestry Department is equipped with the lucky charm of its plan for the protection of precious trees, most of the big trees in the plains are on private land, while there are only penalties for damaging trees on public land. Regarding plans affecting old trees located in the cities, the department can only hope that the planning authorities will consider including plans for turning the places where they are located into green areas.

There are also some people who wonder why it should have become necessary to spend so much money on a few big trees, renovating roads and claiming land at all. Su Chin-sung, head of the D.A.F. 's technical department, says that if more trees had actually been kept in sight when plans were made in the past, most of today's problems could have been avoided.

None of the coconut palms along the Pingtung-Oluanpi Highway in Pingtung, or the mango trees on the Yuchin-Tainan line in Tainan, could escape being cut down due to engineering developments. Lo Hua-juan thinks that there could have been more long-term planning. For example, when a plan is completed these days, the best place to put trees is where they can become safety islands when a road is widened in 10 or 20 years time. Otherwise we can spend a lot of money today on planting trees and it will turn out to be just an empty gesture. At any rate, trees are like people in that they can only grow to a robust age and appear and function at their best when they are given the time to do so. If it is just planned to make a sacrifice of them for people, then people will unavoidably be disappointed.

Before planting 20 million trees:

Countries which attach importance to planning prefer to coordinate according to available land resources. For example, when a new residential area was being developed in the Roehampton district of London, it went through detailed planning with the original trees all being kept and protected just as though it were a park. Places such as the special tree-shaded walkway in Berlin, and innumerable other examples, could also be cited. Planning authorities' selecting a site, flattening everything to make building more convenient, then later setting aside money for planting, is not the same as preservation of the landscape and making more complete plans before starting. Trees need 30 to 40 years to fully grow, while planting big ones is expensive and risky, and the survival rate is low. "The time should at least be given to preserving the existing trees," says Lo Hua-juan. When it was attempted to replant the old trees after construction work on Taipei's Mass Rapid Transit System last year, a lack of supply actually led to cases of traders going to Ilan to steal trees.

Today, people want to plant 20 million trees to save water sources. Even more important, though, is that apart from teaching the next generation how to plant trees, we should first of all respect the trees we already have. Otherwise we will be planting trees on the one hand, while not caring about cutting down the already mature trees we have on the other. In time there will not only be no big trees at all, but people will have no way of knowing what the significance of planting trees is anyway.

The novel Tree King by the mainland Chinese writer Ah Cheng, contains this description of an old tree: "The tree king's leaves drooped a little under the fierce sun, but still moved slightly so sunlight glittered through the gaps between. A bird flew in leisurely from some far place, darting into the foliage like an arrow without a trace. A little later, a group flew out, backwards and forwards, up and down, circling the tree and crying out as though caught tightly by the sunbeams. The patch of shade raised a breeze on the flat ground, creating its own world. The scorching heat evaded it in the distance and dared not approach. . . ."

Can all the trees in our own life become something like this great tree?

[Picture Caption]

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(photo by Vincent Chang)

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Flowers on the trunk of the large-leaved banyan. Such trunk flowering is particular to species of the tropical rain forest.

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The twisted aerial roots of the banyan tree make for oases of shade that can be found all over the plains of Taiwan. (photo by Pu Hua-chih)

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This Formosan sweet gum in Ilan's Chiaohsi might have been spared the axe, but it has been left sticking out in a rather unseemly manner, much like Taipei's North Gate, which is jammed in between flyovers. (photo by Pu Hua-chih)

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"We are really partners in suffering." Dogs and trees both suffer the same unfortunate bondage.

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Even in hot weather there is no need to be afraid to read a paper and enjoy the cool shade under a tree.

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Trees harbor many creatures, including turtles, which come to air themselves on leaving their ponds.