On "Listening to Trees"

Referring to the Channel NewsAsia article and video as below.

Fann Sim Listening to trees to care for them better: The work of an NParks arborist 26 Jan 2019
Marcus Ramos How Singapore's trees are cared for 25 Jan 2019

So Channel NewsAsia decided to interview two National Parks Board (NParks) Arborists on the care of NParks' trees. Note: not all public trees in Singapore.

Samanea saman, sometimes known as Albizia saman but not commonly used name so as not to be confused with Albizia moluccana (a storm-vulnerable species singled out by NParks), which is known now as Falcataria moluccana.

Coincidentally this was the thumbnail of the "How Singapore's trees are cared for" youtube video. The narrator and arborist Robin Ong was explaining the use of diagnoistic tools in second-level inspections while his colleague Clarice Xue demonstrated.

Robin was telling the journalist, "Assuming that there was [emphasis mine] a defect along this tree she wants to investigate". But in the subtitles it reads, "Assuming that there is [emphasis mine] a defect in this tree...".

It was not known beforehand if there was a decay at that spot, before the resistograph drill test was conducted. So would it be "assuming that there was" or "assuming that there is"?

“So it’s a 40-cm hole. The tree is about more than 2 metres in diameter. Comparing 40 centimetres to 2 metres, it really isn’t a lot,” he said.

That would depend on how deep the "hole" is on the x and y axis, and if the cavity becomes larger further into the trunk.

Looking at the Picus sonic tomograph readings, there does not seem to be any cavity at the waist-height of the tree.

It is spelt as "changkol", not "cangkul", and definitely not Cancún. They did not talk about the compass, secateurs and folding saw.

At the end of the article, he called for more people to work in the outdoors and he noted that Singaporeans do not seem to like working in the outdoors.

"Given the "ridiculous" workload, Mr Ong wishes that more people would be interested in the vocation." Heavy workload, not many public sector arborists, outdoor work - people would be interested to join meh?