SEOUL, April 3 (Korea Bizwire) — New guidelines have been set to prevent city workers from pruning street trees down to their trunks.
The Ministry of Environment and the National Institute of Biological Resources proposed that more than 75 percent of the tree branches should be kept intact when pruning street trees.
Excessive pruning has occurred mainly in response to complaints that street trees are covering up commercial signs, or when trying to save maintenance costs.
Pruning down trees to their trunks, however, hurts their capacity to purify the air, and raises the risk of dieback, government officials said.
Experts pointed out that pruning more than 25 percent of the tree leaves hurts the tree’s energy production capabilities, shortening the tree’s lifespan.
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