250,000 more trees to grow in Koronadal on June 29

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250,000 more trees to grow in Koronadal on June 29

Fresh from the success of the 2011 Tree Growing Festival, on June 29, the City of Koronadal will again set a remarkable record of planting 250,000 trees in one day covering 1,000 hectares of land within the Quezon Mountain Ranges in the barangays of San Jose, Esperanza, Mabini, Cacub and Topland.

The city government, in its ardent effort to create a culture of caring for the environment and to intensively campaign for the restoration and preservation of forest areas, targets to double the figure from 131,028 forest and fruit trees planted in 522.78 hectares last year to 250,000 in 1,000 hectares of land this year.

City Mayor Peter B. Miguel takes on the advocacy himself and appeals for cooperation and volunteerism among all Koronadaleños to be concerned of Mother Earth. “The Tree Growing Festival is just one among the major efforts of this City in its environmental advocacies. We know how important trees are if we are to preserve and protect our environment.” Mayor Miguel said. “This year, the 2^nd Tree Growing Festival will be bigger and will cover more areas for us to send a concrete message that we are very serious in addressing our basic environmental concerns,” he added.

From about 30,000 individual volunteers last year, the Mayor now calls for more support from all employees of the city government, regional government offices, non-government organizations, civic groups, academic community, business establishments and residents of the city to do their share by taking part in the said undertaking. Volunteer can register at designated sites such as Ace Centerpoint, KCC, Gaisano Grand Mall of Koronadal and at the City ENRO for this activity.  

The Tree Growing Festival is among the major priorities of Mayor Miguel under the Masaganang  Kalikasan Program . This program is also in support to the celebration of the Environment Month (June) and to the National Greening Program of the Aquino’s administration. It also aims to increase the forest cover of the city.

Meanwhile, what makes this activity more significant is that the city government purposely dubbed it as “tree growing” to ensure that more trees would survive by hiring community extension workers to monitor their growth. Likewise, commitment to nurture and take care of the trees planted will be strengthened through the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement between the City Government and the landowners during the event. To ensure the sustainability of the program, employees of the City Government through the City Environment and Natural Resources Office will take the lead in the program implementation with the active involvement of the community.

Given that this year’s target demands for more seedlings, the organizers also seek to encourage donations of seedlings (forest and fruit trees) or in kind from the general public.

By: Caroline G. Mariano