“Surgery” needed to save girdled trees on MNR
URDANETA CITY–A tree pathologist who made a technical analysis of the 770 remaining trees along the Manila North Road (MNR) in Pangasinan expressed pessimism over the survival of the trees in the months ahead.
Dr. Ernesto Militante, a tree pathologist and retired member of the faculty of the forestry department of the University of the Philippines in Los Banos, Laguna, told environmentalists battling to save these trees said some of those trees can no longer be saved because of the extensive girdling done by the contractor hired by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
And he pointed out that those that can still be saved will have to undergo “tree surgery, treatment and pruning” that are costly but would take time to complete a process of regeneration.
He said the mahogany trees can no longer be saved. The other trees that were girdled included acacia, narra and g-melina adding that some of the trees girdled were 20 to 50 year old trees.
Dr. Ernesto Militante (center), expresses his dismay over the condition of girdled trees along the Manila North Road (MNR) in Pangasinan during a press briefing in Urdaneta City last week. Board Member Clemente Arboleda (2nd from left) assured the tree expert that he will submit the assessment and recommendations to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan. (PIO-GDM)
He said girdling of many of these trees were so extensive that they have slim chance of survival even if they undergo surgery and treatment at this stage.
Speaking to newsmen at Lisland Resort Hotel before he proceeded to Sison to demonstrate how tree surgery and treatment work, Militante said the 770 trees were keenly or brutally girdled from the bark to the trunks’s cambium layer.
“There is no other purpose of girdling except to kill the trees. Why should you remove the bark and cut the cambium if your purpose is not to kill the tree,” said Miliante who also lent his expertise to the preservation of some 20 trees affected by road widening in Carcar, Cebu.
Militante was in Pangasinan at the invitation of Green Research which has since joined the Save the Trees Coalition (STC) whose members are calling for the preservation of the 770 remaining trees yet to be affected by the ongoing widening of MNR from Carmen, Rosales Pangasinan to Sison town.
The 770 were among the 1,900 trees along the MNR, at least 1,200 have already been removed through a tree cutting permit secured by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) that was valid from November 2013 to February 2014.
“Although we can no longer do something for the seriously girdled trees, the good news is we can still do something to make some of these trees live,” said Militante, Fifth District Board Member Clemente Arboleda, and Gwen Borcena, secretary-general of Green Research also interacted with the media. (LVM)
Share your Comments or Reactions
Powered by Facebook Comments
