Irresponsible tree-felling on government land

Contributed by David Nicol

The new owners of an old village house in Mui Wo cleverly set up a chance to destroy trees. They had a third party file an official complaint to the Lands Department about the so-called "danger and obstruction" by trees on government land, on a slope far above their house (i.e. there is no real obstruction, since no one walks there).

The owners then received a "warning" from the District Lands Office (DLO) that they must "maintain" the slope above their house, even though it is government land, and should "remove dangerous dead trees".

They then felled the one and only dead tree on the slope, then destroyed 50 mature bamboos and at least 8 mature, healthy trees, and would have felled more if I hadn't urgently called the DLO and screamed at them to immediately phone the owners and make them stop.

Now, ironically, the denuded slope represents a danger that it was never before, and likely the government will cover it with concrete. This came about due to sloppy enforcement by the DLO. They didn't even inspect the slope beforehand or specify which trees were a so-called "danger".