Laoac’s ‘Tree Library’ planted with foreign, indigenous species
LAOAC—You want to know more about different species of trees here and overseas?
Make a trip to a four-hectare lot in Barangay Botigue in this town where the first and only tree library in the country stands and where foreign and indigenous trees can be found, arranged according to species.
“It is in a tree library where you can see tree species,” Mayor Silverio Alarcio Jr said.
Laoac is the only town that has a tree library project and local government workers help to plant and raise the trees.
“Children today do not know anymore about trees,” he lamented and encouraged parents and schools to visit the tree library for a real life experience with nature.
He said many trees are already vanishing so these are replanted and preserved in the library.
The trees, depending on their varieties, are planted in different layouts and each specie will soon have brief information and description about them.
He said the tree library is a long-term project and has reserved 2.2 hectares in Botigue.
A provincial board resolution was approved last year authorizing Gov. Amado Espino III to enter into and sign a deed of usufruct with the Laoac local government for two parcels of land, both owned by the provincial government, pursuant to the reforestation program and establishment of tree library project here.
Some of the trees that were planted and preserved for over 10 years had to be cut to give way to the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX) that traversed said property, the resolution jointly authored by Board Members Rosary Gracia Perez-Tababa, Clemente Arboleda Jr and Liberato Villegas said.
It was then when the municipal government decided to utilize the remaining portion of the property in Botigue that was adversely affected by the TPLEX as a mini eco-tourism forest park that soon became known as the tree library.
Laoac is a fourth class municipality inhabited by about 30,000 population and it has a land area of about 4,000 hectares. (Eva Visperas)
Share your Comments or Reactions
Powered by Facebook Comments
