Baguio has 2.5-M trees, not enough for 370-K population; BWD conducts tree inventory

By Mark Victor Pasagoy

BAGUIO CITY – Baguio has 2.5 million trees, which is insufficient for water needs among others of this city’s 370,000 local population, according to Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources data
    The DENR, through then Sec. Roy Cimatu, complete general tree inventory in the Summer Capital in April 2019.
    This, time, the Baguio Water District has completed initial accounting of tree species within the 3,000-square meter portion of the Busol watershed in Barangay Ambiong, Aurora Hill here as part of its tree inventory program this month.   
    A total of 54 trees were inventoried from the Muyong of the Philippine Statistics Authority Cordillera Administrative Region through the BWD Adopt-a-Watershed Program.  
    Of these trees, seven species were identified namely, alnus (betulaceae), pine (pinacaea), cheery (prunusavium), eucalyptus (Eucalyptus blogobus), oak (quercus), tebbeg or fig (ficus), and bamboo (bambusa). 
    The inventory team identified 29 mature trees from this total number, while the other twenty-five (25) as poles.
Mature trees are trees that are close to maximum height, those exhibiting reduced shoot elongation, or those which start producing fruits and flowers. Meanwhile, a pole is a young tree stem between one and three (3) meters tall. 
    The partial digitized tree inventory activity, which started on March 7, commenced with the geotagging activities from the BWD’s Geographic Information System (GIS) Section. Geotagging is the process of adding geographical information to various media in the form of metadata.

The data usually consists of coordinates like latitude and longitude, but may even include bearing, altitude, distance, characteristics, age, and place names. 

BWD general manager engineer Salvador M. Royeca said the activity was a resumption of the tree inventory program conceived by the District in 2018, wherein BWD called for assistance of the academe but was held back due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The data acquired will be used to monitor the survival rate of mature trees including upcoming planting of seedlings, the establishment of an accurate tree inventory database, and develop a reference for management, education, and research for watershed conservation and protection.