The people of Taipei have entered a "traffic dark age" for the sake of building their rapid transit system, while we--the roadside trees, are being forced to move homes. Now that work is underway on the Mucha, Hsintien, Nankang and Tamshui branches of the system, some 46,000 of us and our relatives have to pick up our belongings and move on, including around 40,000 bushes, and 6,000 full-sized trees out of a city-wide total of only about 10,000.

Those in the city who care about us must by now be wondering where we have got to? Like the rock band that plays outdoors in the Tinghao area, whose members complained to the tree-removal team that without us there was no shade left for them! But meanwhile we are-spreading our shade anew in other parts of the city. Lungshan Junior High now has thirty new trees, and more and more of us are finding a new home in the Hsinyi Park. It is a bit like playing a game of musical chairs. Although this is a first for trees anywhere in Taiwan, it is in fact very good news for us.

The status of us roadside trees in the city is now fully recognized. Man has found out how effective we are at combating urban pollution. We not only breathe carbon dioxide in, and oxygen out, but also help to keep the air clean for people by trapping dust. Research shows that for every hectare of leaf area, 68 tones of dust a year can be filtered from the atmosphere. With world climate getting warmer under the greenhouse effect, we have a cooling influence. It is us that softens the hard edges of the cityscape, keeps alive the natural sounds of birds and insects, and raises the quality of urban life. They cannot afford to ignore us. The number of trees in a city is already to some extent a determining factor of the quality of life there.

But for all that, when circumstances play trees against public construction projects, it is usually us that lose out. We can't protest, we can't demand our rights, and we can't do anything to save ourselves; we simply quietly await our fate. Yet there is still some justice in the world, and the contribution we make is increasingly recognized. In recent years, whenever construction projects have posed a threat to those of our kind that are a little on the senior side, or are curiously shaped, local people have stood up on our behalf and tried to save us. All Taiwan heard of the incident where conservationists rallied together to save the towering coconut trees from a road-widening scheme along the Pingtung-to-Kenting Highway.

In Taipei itself, the hundred-year-old red cedars that line Aikwo West Road are blessed with special fortune. They are the city's oldest roadside trees, having stood in their original location for over 30,000 days. The thick cover of their luxuriant foliage gives Aikwo West Road a magnificent aspect. It was a major first when during the 1970's the people of Taipei had alterations made to road-widening plans there in order to keep the trees. Ling Te-lin, professor at National Taiwan University's Department of Horticulture, is one who was delighted with that incident.

However, engineering work for the MRTS is on a far larger scale. The Project Office of the Dept. of Rapid Transit Systems, which has the relevant responsibility, even admits that in the early stages of work on the Tamshui and Mucha lines, they were so preoccupied with preparing worksites and recruiting personnel that no-one thought about what to do with us until it actually came time to start digging.

But just when we were at our darkest hour, indignant conservationists began to raise objections. As they pointed out, there is little enough green space in Taipei to begin with. The average is 3.5 sq. meters per person, whereas cities such as Paris and Vienna have three to four times that amount. Is it wise then to do away with the roadside trees? The Dept. of Rapid Transit Systems hastily came up with the following answer to people's doubts:

The MRTS construction project involves underground digging, but it is still necessary to close off some roads on the surface. Since the lines under construction mostly follow major trunk routes, we have to convert sidewalks into substitute car-lanes, in order to reduce adverse influence on traffic conditions. The trees along the roads, therefore, have to make way for vehicles. Moreover, while engineering is in progress, storage area is needed for equipment and materials. In terms of cost too, tunneling cannot take the place of open-cut construction of MRTS stations. To tunnel-dig just one station on Aikwo West Road, would cost an extra 400 million NT. For many reasons, the trees cannot be kept.

On this occasion, even many of the old red cedars have to go. Aikwo West Road, and Roosevelt Road intersecting it, are going to look rather different.

Fortunately, the Department took some good advice, and keeping economic concerns in mind opted to retain us, by helping us to move home, and at the same time wherever possible reducing the numbers that have to move at all. The routing of the line passing Aikwo West Road has also undergone several modifications.

And so we began to move.

Have you ever seen a colony of ants moving home? When a road of trees goes on the move it is even more trouble. First of all, the Department in charge of the MRTTS, and the Parks & Street Lights Administration --the body with special responsibility for us--drew up the necessary agreements with the contractors, specifying that should less than 80% of us survive the move, their fees would be forfeit, and they would also be responsible for replanting. Should less than 60% of trees survive, then the contractors are penalized by replanting at twice the cost. Academic experts were also invited to specify precise technical standards for the transplantation procedure. It was required that each tree be given one year of special attention, including regular fertilizing, watering and pest treatment. Even more important was that every landscaping and horticultural company involved should put up capital of at least 8 million NT as a surety in the event of having to pay for replanting.

To tell the truth, an 80% survival-rate is fairly high. If that proportion really do turn out to survive, then we shall be delighted, because moving living things like us is not simply like shifting a refrigerator or a television. It is necessary to spend at least nine months to one year on preparation, from initial pruning, to final uprooting. Pruning reduces moisture loss through evaporation, and saves the leaves and branches from craving for nutrition that the root system is unable to provide once the tree has been uprooted. Uprooting occurs in three stages over three-month intervals, and only once the fibrous roots--which have strong vitality and absorb nutrition more quickly--have grown longer is the tree able to regain its vigor after trans plantation. The tree also has to be moved before spring; otherwise new buds would wither, and threaten the life of the main body of the tree.

While the team is actually moving us, they have to keep our trunks wrapped in quilts to protect against damage to the bark, which could affect later growth. Of course the larger trees are harder to shift, and it takes five or six people, as well as a truck, and cables, to move one bi tree, costing anything from NT$10-20,000. In other words, a considerable outlay of time and money. Because of this, when it took six months to move those of us in Fuhsing South Road, some people said that we were among the main culprits for delays in the MRTS construction program. Chen Jui-cheng, head of the Reautification Section of the Park & Street LightsAdministration refuted this allegation, saying that the time needed for re-location of trees and other road features, should have been taken into account during planning for the MRTS.

As a matter of fact, we don't want to move anyway. In a way, we are like people. Pruning and uprooting is like having an operation. We lose a lot of life-force in the process. And the older we are, the less likely we will make it through successfully. There is nothing unusual about red cedars, for instance, living for three or five hundred years in normal circumstances. But after the effort of being transplanted, they are, as one expert puts it, "just about done for!"

Professor Liao Jih-ching, of National Taiwan University's Forestry Department, says that to ensure healthy growth, our trunks should be wrapped in hay for one year after transplantation, for protection and ventilation--rather like a sick person needs to wear extra clothes against the cold while still weak. This is because the bark becomes very fragile, and may be cracked by harsh or extreme weather, providing a perfect breeding- ground for bacteria. Even if a tree lives through, it will be "crippled," and unable to grow much more. Professor Liao often refers to a row of trees on campus as subject for class. Two of them were not cared for fully after being transplanted as saplings. Their bark became cracked, and as a result they grew stunted and misshapen, in stark contrast to the trees around them.

"There is a cost to paid for transplanting trees!" says V.T. Liu, head of Watershed Management at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, a champion of conservation ideals, and one who relatively understands us.

This is the reason we generally cannot return to our original places again after being transplanted. Many people in Taipei assume that if we just wait awhile, we can move back once work on the MRTS is finished, and that way everyone will be happy! But as Lin Rong Jeng, head of Yu Ho Horticultural Company, one of those involved in moving us, puts it: "This is not just swapping flowerpots." Bigger trees, in particular, require two or three years before they can adapt to a life in new surroundings. But there may still be one more move to survive before we recover our former strength and appearance. Unfortunately, limited free space means that many of the parks don't actually have any room to take in homeless trees. Only Hsinyi Park has managed to take a large number, and otherwise only a few traffic islands, other roads, and schools have taken trees. So we get separated from the friends that used to share the same roadside with us, and cannot even help beautify the whole city. Some are entrusted to temporary care in one location, until the right place can be found, when they are transplanted again. The paperbark trees transplanted to Tatu Road, for example, may well be sent off for a second round of "musical chairs," since the City Council decided that the red cedars of Aikwo West Road have to move in to Tatu Road too.

It's a hard life as a roadside tree! Don't you understand? For over thirty years now, the camphor trees along Chungshan North Road have been unable to grow any larger, stunted by the pollution of countless cars, which blocks their pores, obstructs their breathing, interferes with the photosynthesis, and disrupts their organic balance--right in line with the diagnoses of Liao Jih-ching and V.T. Liu.

The roadside trees: we stand faithfully at our post for the sake of the quality of life in the city--"burning ourselves to give light to others." We are deeply grateful for the time and money that is being spent to save and move us. When this phase of construction for the MRTS is over, you will see our younger relatives appear in the places we used to be, to serve you--so please look after them well. Thank you!

[Picture Caption]

Trees are pruned before being transplanted, to reduce moisture loss through evaporation during the process of being moved.

(Left) With MRTS construction well under way, Taipei's roadside trees are moving home. The picture shows trees originally from Chunghsiao Park, arriving at their new home in Lungshan Junior High.

Uprooting begins two or three months after pruning takes place. The trees have to endure being "bald" in the meantime.

Plants and trees beautify the city, and also benefit the environment as noise-breaks and dust-filters.

In the urban jungle, roadside trees are often affected by construction work around them.

Lofty trees lend the Champs Elysses in Paris much of its atmosphere.

A roadside tree in London, wrapped in warning lights for road safety.

Trees in front of the Korean Embassy in Chunghsiao East Road, forced to move by work for the MRTS. During pruning (above), and after pruning (below), awaiting transplantation.

A wasps' nest high up in a roadside tree.

Trees are pruned before being transplanted, to reduce moisture loss through evaporation during the process of being moved.

Uprooting begins two or three months after pruning takes place. The trees have to endure being "bald" in the meantime.

Plants and trees beautify the city, and also benefit the environment as noise-breaks and dust-filters.

In the urban jungle, roadside trees are often affected by construction work around them.

Lofty trees lend the Champs Elysses in Paris much of its atmosphere.

A roadside tree in London, wrapped in warning lights for road safety.

Trees in front of the Korean Embassy in Chunghsiao East Road, forced to move by work for the MRTS. During pruning （above）, and after pruning （below）, awaiting transplantation.

A wasps' nest high up in a roadside tree.