Tree Doctors? It's About Time

Blogger's Note: For being a politician and President GMA's favorite whipping boy, DENR Secretary Mike Defensor had made the right move with Oplan Sagip Puno. I just hope it can be sustain beyond GMA's term. I hope he could make MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando cooperate with him. Read on... 8-)

Tree doctors rush to save lives of critical 'patients'
First posted 04:06am (Mla time) Oct 16, 2005 By Blanche S. Rivera,Inquirer News Service
http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=53499

THERE'S a new breed of doctor whose job it is to preserve the lives of trees.

And he is working quietly, patiently, treating a most critical patient: Metro Manila.
The government is moving to save the metropolis' environment, and has tapped tree doctors to perform surgery on ailing trees, do a facelift on Edsa, and build a "lung" of mini-forest parks where city slickers can breathe.

Touted as one of the world's most polluted urban centers with over 10 million residents, the metropolis is an emergency case.

"It is hard for trees to survive in Metro Manila," said forester Carlos P. Basilio.

"Usually, trees live only half of their natural lives when planted here, so Metro Manila needs doctors. We're here to restore and prolong the lives of trees," he said.

'Oplan Sagip Puno'
Basilio, 56, has been a forester for 23 years. But he started serving as a tree doctor four years ago, when the government first launched its "Oplan Sagip Puno" project and trained foresters in the craft of "treating trees."

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources recently relaunched Oplan Sagip Puno to save trees that were infested with disease as well as those that would be affected by road projects or that the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority deemed inappropriate on busy streets.

"This project will pave the way [for] the realization of a Metro Manila transformed from ... a polluted city into a healthy garden metropolis, and serve as a model for all urban centers in the Philippines," the DENR said in its project description.

Tandang Sora's tree
Trees with historical significance are also being considered for preservation, which is the case of Basilio's favorite "patient."

Last year, the DENR team performed surgery on the Duhat ni Tandang Sora, a centuries-old duhat tree on the Metro Manila College campus in Novaliches, Quezon City.

With three huge cavities in its trunk, the duhat tree-said to be the favorite of the 19th-century heroine Tandang Sora (Melchora Aquino) to seek shade and contemplate under-would have died without the operation.

"There were cavities through and through, and it was starting to grow roots inside ... We worked on it, and now it's getting better. It's a pretty sight to look at again," Basilio said.

Armed with chain saw, chisel, toning saw, cement and sand, the DENR's tree doctors roam the metropolis, working on roadsides and in villages to perform surgery, some of which could take up to five days.

Tree surgery entails cleaning to remove all decayed portions, spraying of medicines, painting of coal tar on the affected areas, and finally cementing the wound.

"The scars will heal gradually, and the bark will regenerate, so that it's like new again," Basilio said.

Lungs for the metro
Carlos Gubat Jr., a forester for 37 years and now chief of the DENR-NCR urban forestry division, is another tree doctor who has his hands full creating "lungs" for Metro Manila.
These lungs-areas of at least 5,000 square meters planted to full-grown trees that are about five meters tall-are the 21 miniforest parks scattered in the metropolis' 17 cities and municipalities.

"In the provinces, you plant usually for reforestation. Urban forestry is mostly for aesthetics and for clean air," Gubat said.

Studies show that a full-grown tree can absorb 26 pounds of carbon per year, equivalent to the carbon emission of a car on an 11,300-mile trip.

In Metro Manila, where 70 percent of air pollution is caused by mobile sources or smoke-belching vehicles, a mini-forest park would have mega-benefits.

"All you need to do is stand outside for several minutes, and you'll know how badly we need these forests in Metro Manila ... We need lungs for this city," Gubat said.

Parks and gardens
Besides the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife, the biggest mini-forest park in the National Capital Region is found in the Civil Service Commission area in Batasan, Quezon City, which covers about three hectares.

The DENR's National Ecology Center on East Avenue has 130 dipterocarp seedlings planted in the area, mostly endemic species like the white lauan, palosapis and yakal.

The DENR-NCR's urban forestry has partnered with at least 20 subdivisions, schools and clubs who want to create mini-forest parks in their available spaces.

It also gives free seedlings to residents who want to plant trees in their open spaces.

The tree doctors, who are turning to endemic species from the exotic ones being promoted by the government for decades, launched a theme garden at the Quezon Memorial Circle two weeks ago.

The garden showcases 34 endemic and indigenous tree species like kamagong, laua-an and gakakan, a species found only in the Batanes and Babuyan islands.

Spectrum of colors
The tree doctors are not only greening Metro Manila. From the previous concept of urban greening, the government is literally moving to a spectrum of colors.

Gubat said the DENR had embarked on planting flowering trees to paint a livelier picture of the polluted urban center.

To bring out the color fuchsia, the DENR will plant Palawan cherry; for the color yellow, the Golden Shower; for red, the fire tree, and for violet, the banaba tree.

Green, naturally, will be the staple.

"We want Metro Manila to be colorful, so we have not just healthy but also beautiful surroundings," Gubat said.

And the tree doctors are taking that principle to the streets. Equipped with ornamental plants in bright orange clay pots, they have invaded Edsa as well.

Last August, the DENR embarked on its Edsa Enhancement project, a beautification drive meant to give eight kilometers of the major thoroughfare-and the most polluted strip in Metro Manila-a facelift.

By Gubat's account, his team has planted palm trees at the Ayala-Edsa junction and placed potted plants on center islands where planting is not possible, such as the Ayala-Buendia and Buendia-Rockwell strips.

"We're proud of what we do. It feels good to know you are preserving a life," Basilio said, referring to the metro's trees.

With 10 million people breathing the oxygen from these trees, the tree doctors could be providing the most urgent treatment ever.
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