When I told my friends that I was going to do weeding at Pulau Ubin, those who have been playing World of Warcraft with me would say: Herbing? Yes, one of my favorite past time in that online world is to pluck flowers. And I thought, weeding is like part of what gardeners do. It is like how I helped my aunt in Paris to maintain her garden during my summer school holiday. OK. I was wrong. The scale of weeding at Pulau Ubin has way exceeded my expectation.
Pulau Ubin is an island off the northeastern corner of Singapore mainland. It reminds me of our recent trip to Lamma Island in Hong Kong. Except, Pulau Ubin seems much smaller, less developed. According to the guides from National Park, there are no more than 50 families living in the island. Today was the first time I landed on Pulau Ubin, thanks to a corporate volunteer initiative I have signed up for. I was so looking forward to this trip that even though I was down with a flu yesterday, I willed myself to get out of the bed this morning. Surprisingly, I felt OK. Mind over matter no doubt.
The jetty that transported us from the mainland to Pulau Ubin took 12 of us at a time. The van that transported us from the meeting point to the reforestation zone took 10 of us at a time. We have chartered four vans. So, we must have about forty, eager to do some serious weeding. Before we started, the guides shared with us why the removal of evasive plants is needed (they tend to take up a lot more nutrient and grow a lot faster). And what would happen to the weeds (recycled in the form of wood chips and used as fertilizer).
We were told that some plants are weeds and some are not. To be frank, in the beginning, most of us were confused, unable to tell the difference. We hesitated. And we pulled the wrong plants. As our confidence grew, we aimed higher and higher. Below is a photo taken using my phone titled, “A Pile of Weed”.
Most of the weeds took five to seven men and women to yank them off the ground with our gloved bare hands. Some are trees as tall as one story high. We had 2 hours of solid weeding, which could become strenuous. Imagine yanking a tree out every other few minutes, under a hot sun. Towards the end of the activity, looking at how enthusiastic we were in pulling out trees one after another, the guides from National Park hinted to us that we should wrap up. Because next week, there will be another group from one of the polytechnics here to do weeding. We have to leave them some, I suppose?
Before we left, I looked around the area. I was amazed at how much weed we have removed. I wish I had taken a before and after image for comparison.
P.S. The Chinese translation of the island’s name seems to mean “Island of Sensitive Birds”. But I must confess that I have not seen a single bird flying above us. Also, we were reminded to be extra careful when entering into bushes. Because there may be sleepy snakes inside. Fortunately, we have not seen one neither.
2 replies on “Weeding At Pulau Ubin”
So how many bags of weeds did you collect? Can you explain again what was the objective of this exercise set our by your company? Seems like a lot of work that the National Parks is getting for free 😛
Mark – Not a full bag … ha ha ha. But quite a number of evasive trees.
My company has this volunteer initiative. We have collaboration with National Park. One of them is to do weeding or beach cleaning. It is for the community. And we are happy to do it for “free”. This happens during office hour by the way.