Bahul: Celebrating something special? Plant a tree!

HAVE you run out of ideas on how to celebrate a special occasion? What about doing something simple yet significant to the environment? I know of people who have made it a point that whenever they celebrate something special in their lives, they go plant a tree.

A friend of mine makes us plant trees in his family's private forest reserve (muyong, as we call it in Ifugao) on his birthday. Before the feast starts, we all have to plant at least five seedlings each of fruit-bearing and/or forest trees. So, at the end of the day, I do not feel like I just went to a party to fill myself up on food and drinks. While the fellowship is always great, the thought of having helped the environment even in such a little way makes it even better.

Updates on President Benigno Aquino III's presidency

This month of July, the University of Baguio is busy preparing for the celebration of its 62nd Foundation Anniversary on August 8. Indeed a special occasion. And as part of our celebration, our outreach office has conducted a series of tree-planting activities involving all the University departments. We planted g-melina, coffee, and pine tree seedlings in three different locations; Camp 8, Mt. Sto. Tomas, and Busol Watershed. Big thanks to the Baguio Water District for the seedlings, by the way. Moreover, in collaboration with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, a series of lectures on environmental awareness focusing on climate change and global warming are also made part of our environmental care activities.

I know planting a tree in celebration of something special is not a new idea. In fact, it's been done for probably a long time now - but only by a few. The challenge is getting more people to do it. We often celebrate by spending. We treat our friends and/or family out. We buy ourselves something special and/or expensive. Or we go on a trip. Things like these are okay. But what about adding an activity that is beneficial to the community or the earth that sustains us?

Imagine the ripple effect this will have if most of us thought of the environment whenever we celebrate something special? We observe a minimum of four important events in a year - that is, birthday, anniversary, Christmas and New Year. That means four new trees a year, minimum, per person. What more if we include "monthsary", graduation, wedding, Valentine's Day, Holy Week, Independence Day, Cordillera Day, Baguio Day, and all the other holidays? And if we really count our blessings, we can also include times when we get a raise, get a good grade or pass an exam, complete a good project, find a job, recover from a sickness, etc. What a wonderful help to environment that would be!
At a time when the environment is in dire need of help, it is our duty as inhabitants to help repair and restore it in order for it to perform its function of sustaining us. Let's start with the simple habit of planting a tree whenever we feel grateful or happy about something, and make the environment happy as well.