Pulau Ubin and northern shores in the Draft Master Plan 2013

What's new to me is the "Northern boardwalk" at Pulau Ubin. Also that the area managed by "Outward Bound Singapore will be opened up for organised visits".

It was reassuring to read that the planners acknowledge Pulau Ubin is "much beloved by Singaporeans" and "will remain as a rustic retreat". Coney Island Park is announced and it appears that there are no changes planned for Pasir Ris mangroves and Changi beach.

Southern shores in the Draft Master Plan 2013

The main changes to the Southern Island in the Plan include plans to build create a freshwater reservoir next to Pulau Brani and a new waterfront park at Keppel Island.

The original natural part of Pulau Semakau is now marked green in the Parks and Waterbodies Plan 2013 overlay. Otherwise, there doesn't seem to be much changes in the status of the Southern Islands and Western Islands.

Mandai mangroves in the Draft Master Plan 2013

An exciting development is the plan for Cashin House to become "a new visitor gateway to the western part of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve". The creation of Sungei Buloh Wetland Park has also turned  adjacent olive green space ('Open Space) into bright green ('Park') under NParks care.

While it's great to see an extension of area covered under the umbrella of the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and Park, Mandai mangroves and mudflats remains designated a 'Reserve Site'.

Singapore's sea pencil helps solve fossil issue!

A chance encounter of our sea pencils on the wildsingapore fact sheets led Dr. Björn Berning and his team to investigate the 'bone' of sea pencil specimens from Changi, provided through the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research.

This helped correct the misidentification of a fossil as a bryozoan. This misidentification has resulted in incorrect information in recent textbooks, stating that bryozoan fossils appear in the Late Cambrian. However, the first unequivocal bryozoans are found only in the Early Ordovician, some 35 million years later, and none of the purported bryozoan fossils could convince bryozoologists of their presence in the Cambrian. It was awesome to learn about the detective work that went into sorting this out and how Changi's sea pencil and wildsingapore played a role.