At 32,770 hectares, NTUEF traverses the townships of Lugu, Shuili and Xinyi, with its head office situated at Zhushan in central Taiwan. It ranges from the Yushan, the country’s tallest mountain at 3,952 meters, down to the south bank of the Zhuoshui River.
The different elevations and ecosystems on show are a microcosm of forests throughout Taiwan, said Tsai Ming-jer, a professor in NTU’s School of Forestry and Resource Conservation and director of NTUEF’s administration. It is an ideal location for teaching and research, he added.
Trees sporting green, yellow and red leaves are picture perfect at a NTUEF campsite in Xitou Nature Education Area.
As a university-run area, the forest is familiar to young people countrywide. Many attend classes in the woodlands on such subjects such as agriculture, biodiversity and forest recreation. Between 6,500 and 8,500 NTU students visit the forest every year, as well as more than 2.7 million elementary and high school pupils over the last decade.
Protecting local inhabitants is high on the agenda of NTUEF’s administration. In 2004, staffers began implementing a series of measures for managing rare tree species. These included setting up a registration system and databank for recording the height, size, condition and location of every specimen on-site.
Nature reserves have been established throughout NTUEF, notably at Duigaoyue, Fenghuangshan and Yashanping targeting red cypress, broad-leaved machilus and castanopsis and Taiwania cryptomerioides trees, respectively. But these locations are home to a host of organisms. At Fenghuangshan, surveys revealed 50 rare or endangered plant types, as well as 161 butterfly and 77 bird species.
Students at Taipei City-based NTU attend agriculture classes in the experimental forest.
NTU Experimental Forest is also home to more than 9,100 people, most of whom are members of the indigenous Bunun and Tsou tribes.
According to Tsai, the university is the first of its kind in Taiwan to launch a joint resource management system in cooperation with resident indigenous communities. It is about recognizing our social responsibility and the need to all work together for the land we live on, he said.
For Taiwan’s experimental forests, the future looks to be safe hands. (E) (By Pat Gao)
Locally grown lumber is put to good use in NTU’s Wood Utilization Center.
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(This article is adapted from “Wisdom of the Trees” in the March/April 2020 issue of Taiwan Review. The Taiwan Review archives dating to 1951 are available online.)