In the previous issue of the MetroPost, the City Hall tried to expound how and why trees could not be harmed by the cement structure encircling some of our acacia trees along the boulevard.
In this issue, our rejoinder will focus on another salient point discussed by Ms. Hofmann — about the nails nailed on our trees, and how these might affect the development and survival of these living things.
The nails pinned to our tree trunks actually have not penetrated the vascular bundles that are responsible for translocation.
Translocation refers to the movement or transport of water and solutes over distances of considerable magnitude relative to the size of the plant.
In bigger trees, this distance may be enormous even in absolute terms, several hundreds of feet or closer to a thousand feet.
In reality, the nails have penetrated only the endodermal portion of the inner covering skin of the tree. The trees or those in the Plant Kingdom are different from animals which do not have pituitary glands that secrete adrenaline hormones, and no neurons to respond to any stimulus, thus, the trees do not feel pain when these nails are pinned onto them.
In some states in the United States, they deliberately place nails on their trees to discourage illegal logging, and to hamper the activities of loggers.
If the critics’ allegations were legitimate, these trees would not have survived till now.
William E. Ablong
Dumaguete City Administrator/ City Agriculturist
