ILOILO City – Instead of cutting trees down or letting them die, the city government is resorting to surgery to save trees with cavities or decayed parts.
The City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) is targeting 20 to 30 trees – some of which are located in the city’s public plazas – for surgery, according to Engr. Neil Ravena, the CENRO head.
The CENRO, with the help of Neil Gegare, an expert and retired employee of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Region 6, conducted surgery on two Molave trees at Plaza Libertad recently.
The city government is rehabilitating public plazas.
“Isa-isa nga gina-inventory kag tinguhaan naton nga ma-repair or mahatagan sang tree surgery para indi maglala ang pagkabuho,” said Ravena.
Gegare also shared his expertise and gave a lecture to CENRO personnel regarding tree surgery.
Ravena said the next to undergo tree surgery is a narra tree at Sunburst Park, trees at Jaro Plaza.
“It’s good nga ang aton mga employees nga nag-undergo training pwede na sila ka perform, (tree surgery),” he said.
The CENRO already procured the needed materials and equipment for the massive tree surgery operations.
Tree surgery, as defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is an operative treatment of diseased trees especially for control of decay.
“Daw pareho sa pagpasta sang ngipon, ang may samad kwaon mo and planohan kon paano i-fill ang gu-ab sang kahoy,” said Ravena.
He added that to fill in the hole, they do the traditional way of concreting the portion so that the decay will not progress and the fungus and other destructing elements could no longer reign.
“Ang gusto namon ipalab-ot we are trying to save trees,” Ravena stressed.
He also noted that most of the trees cut down are invasive ones like mahogany which are not supposed to be planted in plazas especially that its falling bears can pose danger to those who are passing by.
Ravena also noted the city government is now prioritizing the planting of native trees as instructed by Mayor Jerry Treñas.
He added they are coordinating with native tree enthusiasts on what trees to plant especially in plazas.
“May instruction man si Mayor Treñas nga mangita kita native trees nga eight to 10 feet na para ang survival rate taas. The mayor instructed me nga indi dapat mang-utod until such time ang native trees nga gintanom ta daku-daku na nga eight to 10 feet,” he added.
Treñas has been advocating to plant trees especially native ones in the city.
“With the effects of climate change on the weather, we need to plant more trees wherever we can. The city has a lot of native tree seedlings. We are open to partner with any group to plant these seedlings,” he noted.
Aside from massive tree growing in the city, on the pipeline also is the plan to grow 2,000 native trees including the Iloilo tree along the 10-kilometer stretch starting from the service road of the Iloilo International Airport in Sta. Barbara town up to Barangay Ungka II, Pavia.
Iloilo City executive assistant for environment Armando Dayrit said Treñas wants to welcome the visitors with beautiful sight of native trees and to emphasize that Iloilo is environment-friendly./PN
