Regularly check the "health" of trees to prevent risks

On the morning of September 16, the Faculty of Forestry, Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry organized a workshop on "Urban tree management: practices and lessons learned from the International Arboretum Association (ISA).

At the workshop, Mr. Samuel Ma, International Tree Association ISA, acknowledged that currently, the impact of rain, wind, flooding, sidewalk renovations, etc. has been affecting the growth of trees. This poses a potential risk of falling, causing unfortunate damage. Therefore, human resources in the field of trees need to be trained and continuously updated to understand the "health" of trees. From there, proactively develop plans and solutions for reasonable care and treatment of trees.

Balancing the benefits of infrastructure development and ensuring tree safety is a high demand, requiring tree care and maintenance units to have a thorough care plan. Not only that, units must have a long-term tree protection plan and have consultants to achieve good results. Choosing trees suitable for the purpose, location, climate, land... is also an important choice.

View of the workshop. Photo: MINH HAI

A representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Green Parks Company Limited shared that the company also regularly checks and inspects trees to grasp the current status of the trees. When the trees do not meet the requirements, they will be pruned, cut down and gradually replaced. Currently, the trees on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City are about 30-40m high, and workers who take care of and maintain the trees have difficulty pruning branches. The company also found that the biggest risk in urban trees is that the root system is affected by construction works, both objective and subjective impacts. Many trees look very normal, drilling and exploration did not detect anything, but when the trees were uprooted due to the impact of wind and rain, the root system was found to be seriously damaged, sometimes the root tips were chopped and cut several years ago during the process of renovating sidewalks and traffic.

Tree trimming on Tran Nao Street, An Khanh Ward, HCMC. Photo: MINH HAI

According to statistics from the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Green Parks Company, from the beginning of the year to August 10, 2025, in the area assigned to the company to take care of and maintain trees, there were 222 broken branches; 202 fallen trees injured 2 people; damaged 6 cars and 8 motorbikes of all kinds. Most of the tree incidents were due to the influence of bad weather, heavy rain with storms causing trees to fall and branches to break.

MINH HAI

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/kiem-tra-suc-khoe-dinh-ky-cho-cay-xanh-de-phong-ngua-rui-ro-post813247.html