Tree Inspectors – Signs of unhealthy trees activity for kids 2025

This summer, school kids from San Min Elementary School visited us again for another educational activity. This year’s topic was about signs of unhealthy trees—how to inspect, what to look for, and the causes that damage and/or negatively affect trees and their growth. Weevils, long-horn beetles, scarab beetles, stick insects, gall insects, moths and caterpillars, root-rotting fungi, squirrels, and muntjacs were the main wildlife introduced as common predators or infesters of trees in the local environment. We shared pictures of insects known to occur in our surroundings and shared stories about how they can bring harm to trees.

Then, we moved on to environmental factors that damage trees or cause them to be unhealthy, such as resource-poor environments and typhoons. The students were quick to think of different reasons that hurt trees. It was an engaging discussion that was meant to stimulate kid’s thinking process and to view different perspectives of animal-plant interactions as well as environment-plant interactions. Taking their newly received knowledge with them, we then headed off to a nearby forest to find specific trees with pink flagging tapes. The tapes indicated a sign that the tree could be unhealthy. Students had to inspect and tell us where the damage was and what could have been the cause for it.

It was challenging for them, but they all agreed that the bite marks made on tree barks and the structural sign of lianas strangling a tree were their favorite observations. In the end, there was time for free-play in the forest for them to run around and climb on things.

The funniest thing was when we asked students, “So how do we know when a tree is unhealthy?”, one of them said, “When there is pink flagging tape!” And when we asked which part did they like the most, most of them said they enjoyed swinging on a liana like Tarzan.