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Food Gardening & Composting Workshop

Event: Wildlife-friendly Food Gardening & Composting Workshop
Date: Saturday 27 January 2024
Time: 2.00pm to 4.00pm
Venue: Sprout Hub @ 102 Henderson Road
Cost: S$50 per person (Adult/Child age 7 & above)
To register, please email Andrew at: andrewtay.sg@gmail.com

Workshop brief:

Keen to start your own wildlife-friendly food garden from scratch? Have fun tending to your plant babies and watch them become delectable herbs, vegetables and fruits.

If done right, your food garden will also attract beneficial wildlife such as ladybugs, butterflies and birds, adding vibrancy to your garden ecosystem.

This holistic workshop will cover:

  • Tour of Sprout Hub’s Urban Farms to look at food plants and how to grow and use them
  • Start Your Food Garden from Scratch: Types of potting mix, pots, organic fertilisers and pesticides
  • Sunlight and Watering Needs
  • Methods to Multiply Your Plants via Cuttings, Seeds, Clump Division and Offset
  • How to Make Compost in a Pot
  • Participants pot up 2 food plants to take home. All materials provided
  • Free Vegetable Seeds (1 Packet) + Free Plant Cuttings
  • Experience Sharing: Starting from Scratch & Wildlife Found in a Food Garden

National Day 2023 Guided Tree Top Walk (Free)

We’re back with our yearly tradition of a National Day walk! This year we’re hiking from Windsor Nature Park to Tree Top Walk. Along the way, we will look out for wildlife and share stories about the many plants and animals that also call our city home.

Participants can choose their own route out of MacRitchie after reaching the Tree Top Walk. The journey from Windsor Nature Park to the Tree Top Walk is approximately 2.5 km and will be a 1.5 hr walk. (Please note that the journey back will be at least another 2.5km). More details will be shared with confirmed participants. We will be sending you an email before the date of the walk.

It is not recommended for young children below the age of 7 to attend this event as the walk will be long and on uneven terrain.

Protect Singapore’s Secondary Forests

Cicada Tree Eco-Place is deeply alarmed by the ongoing destruction of Singapore’s last remaining forest fragments. In the face of relentless development, secondary forests are largely invisible from both policy and empirical perspectives. However, they possess immense potential for natural regeneration, and provide us an array of ecosystem services.

Secondary forests play a crucial role as buffer zones for the mere 0.16 percent of primary forest that remains. [1] The gradual reduction and fragmentation of these wilderness areas can have detrimental effects, such as exacerbating the urban heat island phenomenon, escalating human-wildlife conflicts, and driving the extinction of native wildlife, particularly rainforest-dependent species.

Rather than bulldozing these sites, we advocate for enhancing their connectivity by integrating and linking them through Singapore’s extensive network of park connectors. It is more cost-effective and expedient to build on existing ecosystems — artificial nature, like estate parks and densely planted urban trees are an inferior substitute. The Windsor and Rifle Range Nature Parks serve as excellent examples of forest patches that sustain biodiversity while remaining accessible and providing recreational opportunities.

In collaboration with Nature Society (Singapore), Cicada Tree Eco-Place has published two conservation books about our last remaining forest fragments under threat — ‘Alexandra Woodland: Haven Along the Rail Corridor’ (2022) and ‘Pang Sua Woodland: Sanctuary Unveiled Along the Rail Corridor’ (2021). These books aim to shed light on the often overlooked richness of biodiversity found within areas along the Rail Corridor.

Through our ongoing efforts, we are committed to raising awareness about the importance of preserving our forests, which represent a vital part of our natural heritage. As our world faces the existential crisis of climate change, Cicada Tree Eco-Place hopes that the powers that be in Singapore will ensure we do our part to preserve remaining ecosystems for future generations.

[1] Yee et al. (2011). The vegetation of Singapore ―an updated map. Source

St. John’s Island Family Nature Camp

Weekend of 10 to 11 June 2023

Organised by Cicada Tree Eco-Place

This island is one of Singapore’s few islands that can still be visited by the public, and only a 45-minute ferry ride away. The tranquil nature found here include coastal forest, Triassic cliffs, sandy beach, rocky seashore, inter-tidal, mangrove, and coral reefs offshore. These easily accessible varied natural habitats make this island an excellent spot for nature study and outdoor exploration. Sea turtles have been recorded to come on-shore to lay their eggs. Rare, endangered seashore plants are still found surviving along its coastline.

Our nature camp program:

Saturday 10/6:

1.00pm            Board ferry at Marina South Pier to St. John’s
1.45pm            Arrive on St. John’s, free & easy
3.00pm            Check into our dormitory campsite, program briefing
4.00pm            Nature-guided trek round the island
6.00pm            Dinner
7.30pm            Nature-guided night walk
10.00pm          Night sky-gazing, zzzzzz

Sunday 11/6:

7.00am            Breakfast, nature-guided walk to Lazarus Island via land bridge
10.00pm          Check-out of dorm
12.00pm          Board ferry to Marina South Pier

Cost: If we have a group of 15 paying pax, it is at $80 per participant. If we have a group of 20 paying pax, it is at $60 per participant. FOC for kids age 6 years and below of participants.

Cost includes provision of breakfast, and does not include the other meals and ferry rides ($15 return per adult/kid).

Please note:

St. John’s and its dorm are managed by Singapore Land Authority which requires advance booking with the personal particulars of all overnight visitors.

To reserve your seat/s, please email the participant/s:

- full name as in identity card/passport
- identity card/passport number
- mobile number

to Andrew at: andrewtay.sg@gmail.com

Closing date for registration: 10 May 2023

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