In my role as the resident horticulturist, keeping our trees in good condition is a challenge for the landscape team on the golf course. We must be aware of what’s going on around. In particular, the risk that trees may fail and decline in health for several years after getting wounded. The tree owners are directly responsible to deal with this. As the tree keeper, we may not be able to physically remove or treat a tree when it becomes worse but at least we can learn what the causes are and try to avoid similar incidents from happening.
The fallen uprooted Ficus tree at the main road occurred on 8 January 2025 in the evening, shocking the Club residents. These incidents often occur during rainy season and storms. It gets immense coverage from the Club Members and staff and will get more attention if it involves loss of life or damage to property and vehicles. One of the staff told us it happened around 6 in the evening. Fortunately, no car or pedestrian crossed the road at the time. Our team always keeps alert in solving the problem, aside from identifying the causes and ways to prevent such an incident.
Being a member of the International Arborist Society, I had been exposed to training and conferences, took the initiative to conduct a Species Failure Profile (SFP) study to identify frequent failures of particular species. In one discussion held on 14 July 2019 with Prof William Fountain, the 30 trees commonly planted in Malaysia were identified as species: Khaya sp., Tabebuia sp.,Samanaea saman,Peltophorum pterocarpum, Swetenia macrophylla, Eucalyptus deglupta and Casuarina equisetifolia. More trees will be included as the study expands in the future.
In discussions with our arborist, who performed Tree Risk Assessment in August 2024, it was noted that, the Ficus tree takes support from its aerial roots anchored to the ground. It failed as this Ficus tree had no air roots which were needed as a support pillar. Based on the observation of its roots, there are still many roots, however they were unable to support the whole tree.
For the Ficus, we now know that the air roots need to grow bigger to become the pillar support for the spreading branches. As acknowledged in the Tree Risk Assessment, the mitigation action was to reduce the crown, which was in November 2024. Unfortunately, the tree couldn’t withstand the strong winds on that day which caused the uprooting.
The emergency works of cutting and clearing of the fallen tree on the main road was done by the outsource team who started early in the morning the following day. They cleared the one-way road and opened the main gate again at 10 in the morning pending the twoway road to open whilst waiting for TNB to restore the long-extended cable. The tree fell onto the TNB cable which challenged the team to remove the trunk wisely without damaging the wires of the cable, which errors could cause an electric shock. They were equipped with safety helmets, boots and gloves for their own safety.
The loss of trees at the Club is being recorded annually. In 2021, there were 15 lost trees meanwhile in 2022, the numbers increased to 30 trees. This was due to the storms and lightning strikes, which are events beyond our control. In 2023, 28 trees fell due to storms or being struck by lightning. In 2024, the loss reduced to less than 10 trees. Based on our records in the Club, the trees which frequently fall are the Fagraea fragrans (Tembusu) and the Casuarina equisetifolia (Rhu), but seldomly the Ficus tree. Every month there are heart-wrenching tales about the trees which fell, and most of the time they are weakened or damaged by storms. It is important to have the young trees properly established with the soil during its young age, to overcome being uprooted in future due to such storms. Staking and guying is necessary to have the roots of the trees hold the soil for a very long time. Staking and guying require manpower and is done manually for trees, in order to provide wind protection and allow trees to grow straight. Though not always necessary in other areas, they are useful in certain circumstances such as areas with strong prevailing winds and top heavy trees with small root balls. The inner side of soil was the challenge for our trees. It is a different matter compared to trees which fail due to severe damage by decay.
When cutting the tree, decay was spotted inside the trunk. Due to hollow trunks, a main trunk standing alone is not enough to support the tree. We will be more careful in taking care of the trees because, as the saying goes by my senior Horticulturist, “If we were taking care of nature, nature will take care of us”.
