Limlingan: ‘Tis the season to plant trees

ARAYAT Mayor Emmanuel “Bon” Alejandrino recently led other officials and employees of the municipality including personnel of devolved and national agencies in planting seedlings at Mt. Arayat.

The worthy endeavor resulted in the planting of around 2,000 various hardwood and fruit-bearing trees along the landslide prone area of the mountain and part of the San Juan Baño village. By next weekend, another set of some 2,000 saplings shall be planting in other parts of the mountain.

It can be observed that Mt. Arayat has some portions that needed to be patched with plants and trees in order to bring back its former status of being thickly forested prior to the rampant slash and burn practices, logging, forest fires and other forms of denudation.

Mt. Arayat had already the taste of being eroded even manifested by landslides that took the lives of some several years ago. Landslides are indications of the lack of roots of trees gripping earth and rocks. Such earth movement would not occur if only there are enough trees that shall hold soil.

One of the aims of the said tree-planting activity of the municipal government of the said town is to address denudation problems faced by the lone mountain in the province. It is an annual activity that is being done by the local government unit during this time of the year when rains frequent the region.

The need to plant trees at Mt. Arayat is not only the concern of one of the municipalities where the mountain is situated. Other local government units may emulate such endeavor since the environment would benefit from such just as humans shall benefit too if the environment is seriously protected.

There are many parts of Mt. Arayat that are still needing to be planted with trees. The government, national and other local public entities alike, the private sector and other organizations can always plant trees not only on the slopes of the said mountain but also also river channels, in open spaces and other places where the weather, the kind of soil, water supply and other elements can assure the survival of trees planted.

Unfortunately, there are tree planters that are only for the photo opportunities and for the sake of planting trees minus their sustenance. I have witnessed a government agency before which planted trees at the onset of summer. Complete with a little media coverage, the trees planted withered due to hot weather and the lack of water that should have sustained the life of the trees.

This rainy season, it is only logical to consider that this is the best time to plant trees as the latter need not be maintained with watering since frequent rains can take care of the supply of water. In other words, this is the season for planting trees.

As for my personal research, there are trees that can easily survive and grow even without being attended to. Such of these kinds are the African talisay popularly known as the umbrella tree, the Philippine cherry or the aratiles and many others. These trees although not classified as hardwood, are easy to plant, propagate and multiply.

If only to give idea to government authorities, they can spread seeds of such easy-growing trees using helicopters and spread the same along the slopes of mountains. This may sound too costly but the survival rate of the said trees and the chance of having them propagated is quite high.

Going back to the said tree-planting activity, the municipal government deserves praises for its effort to take care of its own, Mt. Arayat.

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For any comments, ideas, suggestions or opinions, text or call The Advocate at 0921-3636360 or send email at dencious@gmail.com

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