Monday, April 30, 2007 Speak-out: Is Earth Day just one day?
EARTH Day is over; that's the trouble. Back to business as usual, replacing trees with concrete but perhaps not. Some citizens are willing to take action. And well they should, for what is at stake is the last large, old tree on their street and they would like to keep it so kids to come know what a tree looks like.
The location is Upper Assumption Road., next to UB Science High School, adjacent to the Gate 5 entrance to SLU. The victim is a magnificent full growth completely healthy pine tree of large, majestic proportions, the kind that made Baguio famous. It is perfectly balanced and flawless. It has the good fortune to be at the very top of the Assumption Road hill. It is viewed with joy by tens of thousands of the Saint Louis University, University of Baguio, and UB Science High Students as they hurry to their classes, rejoicing in the brief contact with nature.
Due to its hilltop location, it is also a moment of relief to tens of thousands of citizens living their daily lives in many parts of the city below from which it is visible, to taxi drivers stuck in traffic, to husband and wife having a spat, to police directing traffic. We all know the relaxation a brief glimpse at a great tree can bring to our daily problems. We think "that Tree has been there close to 100 years, how serious could my problem really be?" and we gain perspective.
SLU wants to cut the tree down -- and for the best of reasons -- they want to replace it with a daycare center. However, a quick look at the site reveals there is ample room for both the tree and the daycare center. In fact, the tree would enhance the daycare center, and give meaning to the nature lessons of the children. At least, this is what the over 1,000 petition signers expressed on Earth Day as they lined up to add their voice to the mounting claim to preserve this tree. Without hesitation, they spoke as one voice to preserve the large, old pine trees of Baguio. The petitions have been duly delivered to the Mayor who immediately endorsed a halt in the cutting process and an investigation of the application to cut.
Alternatively, the teachers, students, and residents along Assumption Road, faced with the bleak prospect of wall to wall concrete, are writing personal letters to Fr. Jesse Hechanova, president of SLU, asking him to alter the design of the daycare center to also include the tree. Some of the contents are very touching...
....dear Father Hechanova,
...and UB Science High students will have a tree to look at every day, and not only us but all the people who will go to Baguio.
Would you like to call Baguio THE CITY OF MISSING PINES?...UB Science High student
...dear Father Hechanova,
...Though your plans for a daycare center are noble enough, wouldn't it be much more noble if mother nature is unharmed along the way. You might say it is just one tree, but one tree is miracle enough for us to save...UB Faculty member
Father Hechanova has a strong record of standing first on environmental issues in Baguio. We understand how the situation occurred, unfortunately. The planners of the daycare center at SLU are taking their project very seriously. Of course, they want the building to be as absolutely large as possible. Perhaps, they feel their project should be an exception to the "no cutting of large old trees in Baguio" policy. But to every project manager, his project is an exception. Me too. To me, my projects are special.
But we all must realize we must all make provision. All our buildings must be slightly smaller, all our flyovers slightly curved, and then we will still have beautiful trees to look at. There's no other way.
I challenge each mayoral candidate to publicly take a position on this Assumption Road pine tree. What would you do if you were Mayor? The people of Baguio want to know.
Tom Ewing
Faculty advisor and former University of Baguio professor
