My experience with AFCD is that there is a horror within the dept at the very idea of chopping down trees, even if they are exotic, planted species that could be replaced (as part of a development proposal, for example) with native species that would, ultimately, enhance local biodiversity. I would fully support selective felling of most of the paper bark trees and allowing natural succession to take over. The area at TPK where they are concentrated is, in my experience, very uninteresting in terms of birds. I think I may have written to AFCD many years ago suggesting the removal of these trees, but can't remember now.
The chopping down of trees is a management tool that I believe could also be used much more at Mai Po NR, where I believe extensive areas of trees are out of place. What we need there is large open areas of freshwater marsh, not brackish lagoons intersected and surrounded by trees, whether native or exotic. Certainly fruit-bearing species such as Melia are important, but I believe that parts of the reserve would benefit from significant opening up. When I first arrived in HK 20 yrs ago, the reserve was significantly more open than it is now. It also supported greater numbers of duck in the daytime in the winter, though I don't know if these are related.
Geoff
