Government tree-care staff are flocking to sign up for a new professional arborist course they say will give them more confidence at work.
Staff from the tree team and park team of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and the Lands Department attended a briefing about the diploma course on Saturday.
Organisers had set a quota of 30 students but by last Friday had received more than 50 applications. Registration ends on Wednesday.
The part-time diploma programme is the first formal, locally provided course that covers a range of arboricultural skills designed for the city's needs. It is co-organised by Hui Lam-hing, a member of the government's tree expert panel and chairman of the Hong Kong Trees Conservation Association, and Chinese University's school of continuing and professional studies.
Public concerns about tree policy were raised after a woman was crushed to death when a decaying, century-old tree collapsed on her in Stanley last August. A taskforce has been set up, headed by Chief Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen, to review tree management policy.
An LCSD park assistant, who did not want to be named, said he was keen to spend his off-duty hours learning more, even though the course would cost HK$14,000. On-the-job training was available in the department, 'but my boss will never let me go during office hours, saying there is too much work'.
He said he had to monitor contractors in tree pruning, but the contractors 'often had no clue and just messed the trees up'.