OpinionsGender BenderTrees of life - and how we treat them

Trees of life – and how we treat them

-

- Advertisment -spot_img

Trees were once revered in many cultures, were integral to mythology, were powerful symbols in legends.

Druids worshipped not in enclosed structures but within natural groves or under trees planted as sacred sites. The Book of Genesis makes reference to God’s creation of the tree of life and the tree of knowledge.

Some scientists today even trace the development from prosimian to simian to homo sapiens to a large extent to the interaction with an environment of trees.

All that long human history and spiritual connection to trees appears to be largely lost to us. Oh, yes, there is still lip service, and tree planting activities in denuded sites are very popular (their survival often left to fate…)

In workshops with young people, they can enumerate most of the 15 reasons I ask them on why trees are important.

But the truth of the matter is that in today’s culture, people do not value or care for trees.

Evidence of this is everywhere in the City: garbage bags nailed to trees, trunks covered with stapled plastic advertisement posters or large streamers with wooden frames nailed at the top and bottom of tree trunks.

All of this inspite of a City Ordinance prohibiting such acts — but apparently, ordinances mean little.

Electoral posters, more than a year after the elections, still hang on trees in several places. Those on a magnificent acacia in Km 5 of the Valencia road have been reported three times to the General Services Office in the past half year — they’re still there.

On that same road that I take every day, at least half a dozen mango and acacia trees that took decades to reach their proud size have been cut. Construction of anything: a canal, fence, driveway wins over a tree every time.

Along the Quezon Park parking spaces, I’ve counted six holes in the cement by the fence along Legaspi/Bishop Surban St. where trees used to stand. The holes could be used to replant trees (shade! oxygen! carbon sequestration!) but repeated queries to the City Environment & Natural Resources Office have met with total indifference.

Worse has happened: highway trees have been “pruned” in a brutal manner that can only be described as mutilation. Whatever aesthetic value old acacia and other trees had has been willfully destroyed. “Who needs the beauty of trees anyway?,” whoever has the authority to take chainsaw to trees appears to be saying.

Apparently, the perverse term of “killer trees” has been used because the badly-cared-for trees dropped a branch or even toppled over on people.

The responsibility lies fully with those who neglect the health and the correct care for trees, who do not prune dead wood, or whose work on roads and canals removed roots, and otherwise destabilized trees.

Of particular concern at present is the long-term survival of the acacias along the boulevard. They are none too healthy as it is, having been subjected to ill-treatment in the past, for example, when ropes of electric lights were twined around their trunks and secured with 400 four-inch nails in each tree. (Silliman students counted them…)

In a recent development, each trunk has been circled with a cement wall to serve as seating, with the inside of this structure filled with soil in a rising slope and planted with grass and low plants. Unfortunately, it has to be said, pretty it is not, though tastes may differ.

But there’s a more serious issue concerning what is called “grade change”. Expert literature says: “Raising the grade or soil level over existing roots can have even greater effect on the future growth and survival of existing trees. When soil or any type of fill is placed over the existing root system, it causes a reduction in the oxygen supply to the tree roots, and slows down the rate of gas exchange between the roots and the air in the soil pore space. ….Lack of oxygen in the soil may result in the accumulation of noxious gasses and chemicals detrimental to good growth. When this occurs, the feeder roots fail to develop, the root system and the above-ground portion of the tree begin to decline….” This process of decline can take a few years.

There are possible corrective steps the literature also describes in detail to save the trees that have as yet no visual symptoms of deterioration: if ENRO, GSO or anyone else is interested, get in touch.

The point seems to be that things are being done to trees in the absence of sound knowledge about the care of trees on the one hand, and on the other, about exposing trees to risks.

Who’s in charge? Who’s the committed and knowledgeable person out there who should ensure that Dumaguete does not lose more trees?

Here’s a picture of seating provided around a tree I saw last week in the garden of St. John’s Cathedral in Hong Kong. Simple, no “grade change” and mindful of the integrity of the tree….

(Back to MetroPost HOME PAGE)

Latest news

Fishers push for 15-km zone

    Multi-sectoral groups in Negros Oriental are pushing for the return of the 15-kilometer municipal waters to the fisherfolk amid...

Chaco creates MPox task force

    Gov. Manuel Sagarbarria on Monday created the Negros Oriental Monkey Pox Task Force through an Executive Order to prevent...

Challenges as schools reopen

    When public schools across Negros Oriental and the entire country open their doors on June 16, they do so...

Open letter to the Sagarbarrias

    An impressive achievement -- four members of your family holding critical positions in various levels of government.  From Councilor,...
- Advertisement -spot_imgspot_img

Focus on real solutions

    My boss recently asked me to take a look at the more-than-40 people who report to me -- if...

A journey of heritage, healing, hope

    Beyond the map By Marcky Antonio and Miggy Antonio Delivered at the 8th Harvard Club of the Philippines annual Filipino graduation...

Must read

Fishers push for 15-km zone

    Multi-sectoral groups in Negros Oriental are pushing for the...

Chaco creates MPox task force

    Gov. Manuel Sagarbarria on Monday created the Negros Oriental...
- Advertisement -spot_imgspot_img

You might also likeRELATED
Recommended to you