BAGUIO CITY – Some none hundred-fifty employees of the Loakan-based MOOG Controls Corporation and secondary students of the Mil-an National High School actively participated in a tree planting activity at the city’s Busol watershed Saturday.
The participating MOOG employees and Mil-an National High School students planted more than 200 assorted tree seedlings within the designated ‘muyong’ of the company within the Baguio side of the watershed.
MOOG Controls Corporation employees are consistent partners of the city government in its environmental preservation and protection program, particularly the sustenance of the award-winning Eco Walk program, to help improve the forest cover of existing watersheds in the different parts of the city.
Evelyn S. Boguen, head of MOOG Controls Corporation’s corporate social responsibility program, said considering that their designated plantation area is already overcrowded, the company will request the local government and the Baguio Water District (BWD) to provide them an expansion area for them to sustain their commitment to help preserve and protect the environment through their consistent participation in efforts to plant trees around the city.
By next month, Boguen said the employees and students of the school will be going back to the Busol watershed to weed their areas of newly planted trees so these will grow robust like the seedlings they earlier planted.
In the case of the Mil-an National High School whose students and teachers are first-time participants to the city’s long-running environmental program, Boguen revealed teachers and students are also interested to have their own designated plantation site which they can visit annually and plant more trees as part of their commitment to empower the youth to actively participate in such kind of activities and learn the value of trees in sustaining the ecosystem of the city.
Some of the MOOG employees had been participating in the company’s annual tree planting activity in the Busol watershed which and they claim they love to keep visiting the forest to monitor the growth of the trees they have planted and inspire their co-workers to join them in the relaxing activity which could be done anytime during the rainy season.
The city’s Eco Walk program is aimed at inculcating into the minds of the children the importance of the trees in the forest for them to value trees as they grow and learn about the contributions of the trees in sustaining abundant water supply.
Apart from the 112 hectares of the Baguio side of the Busol watershed, other potential tree planting areas in the city include the Buyog watershed, the Lucnab watershed, the Camp 8 watershed, the John Hay watershed, the Crystal Cave watershed and the Mount Sto. Tomas watershed.
Busol provides potable water supply to around 40 percent of the city’s water consumers while the Mount Sto. Tomas watershed provides potable water supply to some 30 percent of the water consumers in the different parts of the city.
By Dexter A. See
