Save the trees

In MacArthur Highway, Pampanga, personnel from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) are now in the process of cutting 1,200 acacia trees. According to reports, the purpose is to widen the highway and reduce congestion in the area. Reports say this is part of an overall plan to widen the highways from Meycauayan, Bulacan up to San Manuel in Pangasinan, which will involve more cutting of trees. Just recently, we also read about the cutting of 500 old pine trees in a four-hectare area of Camp John Hay reservation in Baguio City to give way to site development. These trees served as wind buffers in that area. And of course, the age-old mahogany and rosewood trees at the Plaza Roma in historic Intramuros were also cut in line with the aim to develop the area into a new tourist destination.

I mourn the cutting of all these trees, especially 1,200 old trees and acacia trees at that, despite the fact that the environment permit requires them to plant five saplings along the Megadike for every tree that is cut. The DPWH has given the assurance that the trees will be saved as much as possible and will be balled and re-planted along the Megadike designed to protect nearby towns from the overflowing of the Pampanga River.

We do hope the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) observes the correct procedures and has the proper equipment in earth-balling and transplanting of trees. The fact is, when a tree is cut, it dies. This is because the survival rate of mature, field-grown trees is very low. The very act of transplanting stresses the trees, hence, these usually fail and the trees die sooner or later. Many factors must be considered if one is really serious in ensuring the continued life of cut trees. Do our foresters have the capability and the equipment in cutting the trees the proper way and preserving the roots until they are replanted? What about the transport, the kind of soil and the technique of replanting? We have yet to read a report on whether the trees that were cut were transplanted successfully and survive up to now. 

Another highway project being carried out by the DENR is called the Green Philippine Highways Project. Conversely, this project aims to plant various kinds of trees along the 2,176-kilometer stretch of the Pan Philippine Highway spanning the distance from Laoag City in the North to Davao City in the South. This other side of the picture somehow puts my mind at ease. But, still, there is a need to caution developers in cutting trees in the name of “progress and development”. We must remember that this is one of man’s activities over time that has wrought irreparable damage to the environment and the ecosystem, leading to the ills of global warming. In the light of the global campaign to plant more trees as a way to reduce the effects of global warming, the news about cutting of trees here is really disheartening. We need about 15 million trees to absorb the harmful emissions of carbon dioxide coming from 1.5 million registered cars in Metro Manila alone; nationwide, we need more than that to protect Filipinos from pollution coming from urban areas. 

Man cut the trees that God made for his life on earth. We cannot keep on cutting trees especially in the light of the most life threatening problem of global warming and climate change. Only God can make another tree to replace them, but man can certainly plant them. We need the trees to be there for the future generations.