NEARLY 300 flowering and fruit trees have been planted at Jalan USJ 2/2R park in Subang Jaya, Selangor, as part of a greening effort and to improve its biodiversity.
It was made possible with a RM15,000 allocation from the Housing and Local Government Ministry.
Subang Jaya City Council (MBSJ) Landscape Department was tasked to use the allocation for a space that required improvement.
MBSJ councillor for Zone 4 Kamarul Hisham Yeop Hashim said the department chose Jalan USJ 2/2R park for the greening project.
According to the department, he said planting trees to improve biodiversity would increase the variety of flora and fauna, turning the park into a functioning ecosystem.
A total of 285 medium-sized trees were planted, comprising 210 of flowering, fruiting and even medicinal varieties and 75 shady trees during a half-day session recently.
Fifty people planted trees along plots pre-identified by department staff, such as on the hill, along pedestrian walkways and near the USJ 2 community garden.
The volunteers in the project included students from Oakbridge International School, nurses from Universiti Malaya Medical Centre as well as representatives from Pusat Aktiviti Warga Emas Subang Jaya, USJ 2 Residents Association and USJ 2 Rukun Tetangga.
The plants included Diospyros buxifolia (Boxleaf ebony), Garcinia subelliptica (happiness tree), Gnetum gnemon (Melinjo), Azadirachta indica (neem), Mimusops elengi (bunga tanjung), Murraya paniculata (orange jasmine) and Annona squamosa (pokok nona).
The Jalan USJ 2/2R park came into the spotlight November last year when a group of residents protested against a tree-felling exercise by MBSJ contractors.
They expressed unhappiness with the loss to the environment and urged MBSJ to replace the 35 trees that had been cut.
Subang MP Wong Chen later organised a meeting to mediate a dispute between USJ 2 residents and the MBSJ Landscape Department.
In a social media post on Aug 1, he also quoted the department explaining that the trees in USJ 2 were cut to manage landscape congestion and for public safety.
Kamarul Hisham, who represented Subang Jaya assemblyman Michelle Ng at the tree planting event, said they had consulted with the residents who protested against the felling of the trees.
“They provided a list of tree species to be replanted, but MBSJ Landscape Department said the suggested trees were more suited for a forest setting, therefore unsuitable for an urban park.”
USJ 2 resident Christine Das, who was involved in the initial protest and mediation, was disappointed that the residents were not properly engaged in the tree-planting exercise.
“We agreed during the mediation that the replanting exercise should be done as a community activity between MBSJ and local residents.
“But there was not much engagement with residents. We were only given two days’ notice before the planting date, which left us with little time to plan,” she added.
Christine said their list of suggested tree species was given by an established landscape contractor who had carried out a project on an urban park in Kuala Lumpur.
“We planned to carry out an educational programme with an arborist under the USJ 2 Tree Guardian movement,” said the wildlife conservation artist.
“The plan was to carry out tree tagging and compile an inventory on existing plants at the four parks located in USJ 2.
“We have completed this at the Jalan USJ 2/4S park.”
Since the group is unlikely to be able to do so at the Jalan USJ 2/2R park, Christine said it would carry out the activity at two parks at Jalan USJ 2/7 and Jalan USJ 2/6.
