Thailand Chainsaw Massacre

[JR Texas]

Yes, it actually happened about four years ago on Jomtien Beach....Thailand's Chainsaw Massacre.

Back then the beach had hundreds of old-growth shade trees called "lom trees" (or something like that) in Thai. They provided much-needed shade. They also helped prevent beach erosion because of their unique and extremely extensive root system. This is an old picture of them before the massacre:

One day some Thai workers with chainsaws (under the direction of city government) started cutting them all down, up and down the beach...nothing left but ugly stumps. After that, they planted palm trees and most of them died. No doubt, some rich Thai got an exclusive contract to plant palm trees.

Later, predictably, the wonderful shade was gone, the beauty of the trees was gone, and the beach started eroding (note that palm trees are not good at holding beach sand in place, so this contributed to the erosion).

The entire episode was stupid beyond belief, especially given the dangers of global warming and the need for old growth trees. Sadly, I am seeing this happening all over Thailand....especially to make charcoal.

I wanted to mention this because I never read anything about it in the newspapers or anywhere else. It was as if nobody cared. To me, it was tragedy and a terrible thing to do. To replace those trees will take 60-70 years.

I also wanted to mention it because Thais are being encouraged to embrace "sustainability." And I think they have no idea what that means. To me, sustainability is meeting present needs without impairing the opportunities of future generations.

Well, the Thais with their chainsaws surely impaired the opportunity of future generations to experience the beauty of those trees and to sit underneath their shade on a hot day.

The last thing Thais should be doing is taking chainsaws and cutting down old growth trees........instead, they should leave them alone, build around them, and plant hundreds of thousands more.

[Choscura]

it's a tragedy, but you're over-reacting. it's not a massacre. I'd rather thai people support themselves than have them worry about the fate of their souls because of some trees.

and this is thailand. there are many beautiful things here, and I'm willing to bet there always will be, if you know where to look. this is a humid area, everything grows here- and grows rapidly, to huge sizes, and a great deal of it has some 'cultural nostalgia' value, like the type of tree that Buddha supposedly attained enlightenment under. even in the middle of the city here, you can find tokay geckos as long as your forearm and squirrels (and flying squirrels, just saw one today- in the middle of a tree in chiang mai). there are philodendrons here- commonly known as philo dumb-dumbs where I come from, because they're too dumb to die- that are 20 times the size of the ones you see anywhere else. they grow fast, everywhere, aren't a damaging plant (well, not really), look nice, and hey, they can be used to provide shade if you want. same with nearly any other type of tree, vine, bush, etc here.

long story short, stop whining, life goes on.

[Carmine6]

4 years ago?

Pretty tragic. I think palm trees fit the western view of what a picturesque beach looks like. They don't drop a lot of leaves and then there's lots of sunshine, even though people then sit under umbrellas on beach chairs.

I stayed at one resort with a huge old tree by the beach. The farang owner was such an a** to his staff that I'll never stay there again. In one instance, he was telling one of his employees that he'd dock a days pay because the guy wasn't doing his job. What was he not doing? Well there were 3 leaves from the big tree that were sitting on the sand. The horror.

While the resorts next door had nice lush greenery, this resort was sterile as hel_l. Some patches of grass on the immaculately maintained sand courtyard area, greenery only on the perimeter of the property, and this big tree. I really think if this guy could, he would cut it down and plant palm trees. Every morning he was out there berating the staff to clean up the leaves or rake the sand under the tree. It was like a fixation in a bad way.