1st May SF

[Green Baron]

There was quite a big crowd at SF today !
When I reached the stream, I saw few kids catching fish there. I told them off but they said they catch for fun and will release it back later. I told them it is an offence to catch fish in the reserve but they ignored me and continued catching. When they saw me calling the park ranger , they quickly pour back the fish and make a hasty retreat



There were lots of puddling butts but no Blue Helen in sight Seems like they only appear when Simon is around . The butts attracted quite a lot of crowd. This fella try to take a shot of the FiveBar with his handphone :o

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The only consolation is I finally found the Grey Pansy host plant

[Elbowed Pierrot]

you shld have taken the parent's pix and I ask budak to write to Today ;p

[Green Baron]

No parent around I would have taken the parent's pix if they were there.


However I saw many people picked wild flowers, break branches and tried to catch dragon fly This is the problem with opening up the 'forest' to the public. If this goes on, we can expect a sharp decline in the flora and fauna along the SICC tracks

[Elbowed Pierrot]

thats why i was telling neo and cp on the measures nparks are trying to reduce litters and stuff. they should have known the consequences when they open the treetop walk. just feel that, they r just creating more problems and harm to the flora and fauna. I personally seen more ppl cycling now using rifle range link... I wonder why the nparks aint doing much

[Cycad Blue]

i think many pple dunno it is an offence to do such things in a nature reserve. the kids prolly think that fishing there is akin to fishing in a longkang...perhaps NParks needs to beef up public education in this area liow....

[Cruiser]

i think many pple dunno it is an offence to do such things in a nature reserve. the kids prolly think that fishing there is akin to fishing in a longkang...perhaps NParks needs to beef up public education in this area liow....

I seem to concur with you, ppl need to be educated, especially for the kids.

[Commander]

thats why i was telling neo and cp on the measures nparks are trying to reduce litters and stuff. they should have known the consequences when they open the treetop walk. just feel that, they r just creating more problems and harm to the flora and fauna. I personally seen more ppl cycling now using rifle range link... I wonder why the nparks aint doing much

There's another side to the coin here, about opening the nature areas to the public. MND/URA/NParks/PUB are always under pressure to open up more land for recreational uses. In a way, making the area open to the public actually "saves" these areas from development. When a piece of land is deemed underutilised, the pressure to convert it to development land is very high. Hence in Singapore, choices are quite limited.

Like CP said, it's not easy to enforce and over a large area, manpower limitation is a problem. I've seen NParks staff trying to talk nicely to the monkey feeders before. The abuse from the public that they get is actually very bad - even though there is wrong-doing on the part of the offender. Not an easy thing to manage. If anyone is interested, you can try being an NParks warden for a day, and then go talk to the monkey feeders. You will soon realise that it's not so easy to deal with them.

[Elbowed Pierrot]

when you get tired of talking, just give them a summon.

btw, expat is a majority of the cyclist I have seen.

been civic minded and educating the public on yr own wun hold much weight, ppl similar turn a deaf ear to your cry and laff about it after that. So, its isn't about doing your part to conservate the last nature reserve, but how to educate the public to do what's right and what's wrong. A parent can bring their kids to the beach to catch fishes, so what's the diff from doing it in a nature reserve? ppl dun find it wrong doing what they are doing, as long as their mindset isnt tune to the same frequency as us

[Commander]

When I reached the stream, I saw few kids catching fish there. I told them off but they said they catch for fun and will release it back later. I told them it is an offence to catch fish in the reserve but they ignored me and continued catching. When they saw me calling the park ranger , they quickly pour back the fish and make a hasty retreat

It's good that you did that. Fortunately only kids. If you're alone, and it's adult poachers that you're faced with, it may be safer to call the rangers out of the poachers' range.

[Green Baron]

It's good that you did that. Fortunately only kids. If you're alone, and it's adult poachers that you're faced with, it may be safer to call the rangers out of the poachers' range.

I won't confront them if they are adult. I will just call the ranger. It is not worth taking the risk.

Elbowed Pierrot[/b]] btw, expat is a majority of the cyclist I have seen.

Speaking of cyclist, I saw 2 expat cyclists cycled pass the stream !

opening up the area is only way to save these lands from development. With the desalination and newater, man-made reservoir might be more efficient in the long-run. so, the ball is back in the nature-lovers on how to help NPark to find the justifications. and, there will not be a need for the central catchment in the long run (since water could be collected via other means too).

Agree with CP here.

NParks is in a very difficult situation - they are squeezed between nature lovers who want more areas protected and Singapore's growing demand for more land (and golf courses !)

I think NParks is doing an exceptional job considering the constraints they have to work with. They need more nature volunteers to be their eyes and ears. Help them by reporting such incidents but don't try to be a hero and take things into your own hand .