District leads in ancient tree preservation with 266 trees

Ancient trees are valuable treasures of nature. According to the greening and sanitation bureau of Songjiang District, 40 old trees have recently reached 100 years old, which adds the total number of the district's ancient trees to 266, ranking first in Shanghai. At the same time, there are 170 trees are about to be "century-old" in years.

Old trees that receive special protection are divided into three levels – the first level aging over 300 years, the second aging between 100 and 300 years, and the third aging between 80 and 100 years.

Among the 40 ancient trees upgraded from the third level to the second, seven of them are planted in the Zuibai Pond Park, which means protection standards of maintenance and management measures also need to be upgraded.

"Now the protection range has expanded from the original 2 meters within the tree crown projection to 5 meters, and the frequency of regular inspections has been increased from once a year to twice a year," said Qi Yufeng, a senior engineer from the Songjiang Gardening and Greening Management Center.

Currently, Songjiang has 45 old trees that receive first-level protection, 221 second-level protection ancient trees and 170 trees on the 100-year-old-to-be waiting list.

The species vary from ginkgo, camphor, oak, to Chinese lacebark pine, maple and silk cotton tree, ranking the most in the city.

Songjiang implements a "file for each tree" policy for the protection of ancient trees, and each tree has a specialist responsible for its maintenance.

The gardening department closely monitors any construction, operation and other activities within the protection area, and prohibits any behavior that damages the normal growth of trees, such as digging soil, burning, dumping hazardous waste and building or expanding buildings.