Annex 3
Planning Environment and Lands Technical Circular No. 3/94 - Tree Preservation
Works Branch Technical Circular No. 24/94 Planning Environment and Lands Branch Technical Circular No. 3/94
(This Circular replaces public Works Departmental Technical Circular No. 8/75. "Tree Felling Necessitated by Public or Private Development" and Crown Lands and survey Office Land Instruction No. vol II/26 "Preservation of Trees" which are hereby cancelled.)
Introduction
- General Regulation No. 740 (GR740) explieitly states it is the responsibility of all Government officers to ensure that no trees are unnecessarily lopped or felled (see Appendix A).
- The need to preserve trees must be borne in mind perticularly by those in charge of engineering, architectural and landscape projects. The plainning and design of projects have to take into account the need to preserve trees. It is recognized that there are limits within which a compromise design or additional expenditure could be considered to be acceptable, however alternative designs providing for the preservatio of as many trees as possible must be given full consideration.
- There are many projects such as new roads across virgin country, service reservoirs, formation works and the like where virtually all trees and shrubs within the works area boundary may have to be destroyed. In these instances care should be taken to minimize the extent of works area and thereby maximize the number of trees to be preserved.
- There are many cases, both in rural and urban areas, where trees of amenity or aesthetic value are located adjacent to public roads and footpaths or on sites for building or engineering projects. Every effort must be made to preserve these trees in the planning, design and construction of development projects. when it is necessary to obtain planning permission, the Town Planning Board may impose conditions which require the preservation of some trees and the preparation of landscape plans.
- To cover this, GR 740 is further amplified in the Lands Administration Office (LAO) Instruction, section D-12, which contains the full procedure for obtaining approval to fell trees. LAO Instruction Section D-12 covers both Government (unleased) and leased (private) land. (See Appendix B)
Particular attention is drawn to:
(a) compensatory landscaping/replanting where trees are felled (Section E), and
(b) the prcedure for dealing with the breach of the Tree Felling Clause (Section F). - GR740 and LAO Instruction Section D-12 now provide the current direction for Tree Preservation and Felling.
 (A G Eason) Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands |
 (James Blake)Secretary for Works |
