New rules on balling of trees out soon

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources said itwas working on new guidelines for cutting and earth-balling of trees amid public clamor for a ban on cutting of trees in light of the global problem on earth warming and climate change.

Secretary Lito Atienza said the department was banning on an interim basis the issuance of tree-cutting permits. Atienza said the department would be issuing earth-balling permits to allow for the transplantation of trees affected by development projects elsewhere.

Atienza also said developers must reorient their project designs in such a way that trees are preserved.

Forester Marlo Mendoza, director of the department’s Forest Management Bureau, said his agency would be proposing several technical considerations as to when tree cutting would be allowed and not allowed, and when earth-balling shall be required.

Among these proposals, Mendoza indicated that trees with historical significance like the Tandang Sora tree in Quezon City “must be avoided during any development projects” and that trees under threat of extinction from Philippine forest be given extra care when transferring them to their new site. –Fel V. Maragay, Manila Standard Today