Green Sense follows on the Tuen Mun-Sheung Shui Cycling Track – cycling track and woods are not enemies
If cycling is a part of low-carbon living style,
cycling track should not be the enemy of trees.
More than 3,000 trees will be felled in order to complete the remaining Tuen Mun-Sheung Shui cycling track (Yuen Long-Sheung Shui Section),. The felling includes trees with crown over 20 meters and age more than decades. The environmental cost is unreasonably huge.
After analyzing the route and the construction sites of the cycling track, we have found out that there are two major problems in the Tuen Mun-Sheung Shui cycling track project. Firstly, a large section of the cycling track is located along the Castle Peak Road and the New Territories Circular Road with a narrow width. This greatly increases the difficulty of the construction and thus the number of trees to be felled. Secondly, as the cycling track will be built next to the highways, cyclists will be immensely affected by the air and noise pollution from the heavy traffic. The quality of the cycling track will be worryingly low. Based on the observations we made on-site and the reports provided by the government, we have concluded that it is unsuitable to build this section.
However, the Legislative Council has already approved financial funding to the project. We therefore have immediately contacted the responsible governmental department to raise our request for tree protection. We arranged a meeting with the representative from the Civil Engineering and Development Department in September. After reviewing tree reports, we arranged an on-site investigation with the officials in October in hope of proposing modifications to the project. We have given a series of suggestions to avoid tree felling, including a change in route, partial reduction in the width of the cycling track (the current guideline is a minimum of 3.5 metres), and an adoption of gallery road.
The response from the government is positive and they are currently considering our suggestions. We will continue the follow-up on this project to reduce tree felling as much as possible.
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