Bad news for birders

[joeyao]

Heard this over News 5 tonight: "...the Singapore Land Authority is working at top speed to clear the thick undergrowth of unused state land."
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori...134014/1/.html

[MountainMan]

The great Singaporean way of life... knee jerk reflex action

[calvinlo]

I knew this was coming when I saw all the bush fires. Many people will surely request the government to clear away all these potential 'fire hazards'. This is indeed a sad day...

[Fred]

Garden City indeed?

[Garion]

Damn the authorities. Damn.... Clearing thick undergrowth can magically stop fires from appearing overnite? My goodness.

Hope the NSS or other environmental groups manage to wake up their senses in time...

Originally Posted by MountainMan The great Singaporean way of life... knee jerk reflex action

Couldn't have said it better, mate.

[CYRN]

Originally Posted by Garion Damn the authorities. Damn.... Clearing thick undergrowth can magically stop fires from appearing overnite? My goodness. Hope the NSS or other environmental groups manage to wake up their senses in time...

What to do? They sooo concerned about fire and "bio-diversity" that they didn't even consider the natural balance.

Next time want "nature"... take a trip to Batam loh

[s_wrx]

Singapore Land Authority gave me a call just now. I had mailed them to clarify the statement made in the news report.

They were surprised, and asked me where I read the report and was the report visible to the public. They actually thought I had spoken personally to one of their officers.

Sounded as if they haven't had a clue to the report appearing on CNA...

[MountainMan]

Originally Posted by CYRN What to do? They sooo concerned about fire and "bio-diversity" that they didn't even consider the natural balance. Next time want "nature"... take a trip to Batam loh

Batam??? Batam is worst than Singapore... with so much clearing and scavaging!

[MountainMan]

Originally Posted by s_wrx Singapore Land Authority gave me a call just now. I had mailed them to clarify the statement made in the news report. They were surprised, and asked me where I read the report and was the report visible to the public. They actually thought I had spoken personally to one of their officers. Sounded as if they haven't had a clue to the report appearing on CNA...

Things are looking up again

[ParkertR]

i hope i dont come home to see no more birds left

[CYRN]

Originally Posted by MountainMan Batam??? Batam is worst than Singapore... with so much clearing and scavaging!

Oops... wrong island... Bintan is the bigger island correct?

[CYRN]

Originally Posted by ParkertR i hope i dont come home to see no more birds left

JBP?

[Garion]

Originally Posted by CYRN JBP?

Not counted.

[Canonised]

Please la ..... just a few bush fires and our fire departments oso can't handle? Few months later too much rain then regret again ....
Save the Bushes!

[BlueFly]

Actually, preventing bush fires is good news for the birds. It takes longer for undergrowth ravaged by bush fires to recover and regrow compared to undergrowth cleared by contractors.

Or am I missing the point?

[2100]

Originally Posted by MountainMan Batam??? Batam is worst than Singapore... with so much clearing and scavaging!

Actually, some parts of Batam (not Sekupang/Waterfront City side) and many of the Riau Islands (eg Karimun, Pulau Tebing tinggi) have much more birdlife than SG. Have you seen groups of Brahminies as large as 30 congregating and hunting/playing/gliding against the sea breeze together? It was really a sight to behold as I witnessed that for the last 2 weeks, all of them glidging and holding at one location before diving down for fishes.

And all this happening even though the hotspots in Sumatra/Riau is much worse than SG. The "drought" there (ie Riau islands) is much much worse than SG, fyi.
Put simply, Indo has magnitudes magnitudes more greenery than SG, no matter how many thousands of hotspots it has.

[s_wrx]

brahminies as large as 30?!?!

wow... the largest group i've seen here is about 15-20...

hmm.. at last there's a more sensible report out in ST... it states,

" To prevent more fires and to make sure they do not spread to property, the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) has been clearing land to create firebreaks, while the Housing Board is widening its buffers between empty plots and flats from 10m to 15m.

The SLA has been pruning vegetation in hot spots - working with the National Parks Board as 'we're mindful of the need to preserve nature and greenery while minimising fire risks' - as well as removing huts and other structures on unused farmland. On the advice of the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), it started stripping 10m-wide stretches of vegetation, creating buffer zones between shrubbery and buildings last week. This method is commonly used in the Australian bush."

i'm glad that they clarified the situation instead of just saying that they'll clear the "thick undergrowth of unused state land"

[Garion]

Originally Posted by s_wrx hmm.. at last there's a more sensible report out in ST... it states, " To prevent more fires and to make sure they do not spread to property, the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) has been clearing land to create firebreaks, while the Housing Board is widening its buffers between empty plots and flats from 10m to 15m. The SLA has been pruning vegetation in hot spots - working with the National Parks Board as 'we're mindful of the need to preserve nature and greenery while minimising fire risks' - as well as removing huts and other structures on unused farmland. On the advice of the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), it started stripping 10m-wide stretches of vegetation, creating buffer zones between shrubbery and buildings last week. This method is commonly used in the Australian bush." i'm glad that they clarified the situation instead of just saying that they'll clear the "thick undergrowth of unused state land"

Great to hear that Mich, at least its much clearer now. Guess all the nature lovers will heave a big sigh of relief. Thanks for letting us know!

[jbma]

Good news indeed.

[jbma]

Originally Posted by 2100 And all this happening even though the hotspots in Sumatra/Riau is much worse than SG. The "drought" there (ie Riau islands) is much much worse than SG, fyi. Put simply, Indo has magnitudes magnitudes more greenery than SG, no matter how many thousands of hotspots it has.

Err dude. If Singapore is as big as Riau then it can be compared but Singapore is so small that it makes you wonder there is still a lot of nature on this tiny island. So your 'magnitudes' doesn't really cut it in this case.