How to Organize a Tree Planting Project By: Odylon P.

Villanueva Guimba East Central School

Here are some steps on how to organize a tree planting project /activity in your own school or district: Inspect the area where the tree-seedlings are to be planted. It is best to plant trees that are not insatiable in water or water dependent. The best time to plant is approaching the rainy season, though, it can be done during the rainy season because its not raining daily and those seedlings will not be drowned in water. Proceed to the nearest Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MENRO) and/or Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) - unit of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and inquire how to obtain / acquire tree seedlings, these are free as long that you will be the one to plant it. If permit is required, depending on a location, comply with it, anyway it is usually in a form of a letter of request for formality only and to inform the people of jurisdiction of the area of your intention to tree plant. Once you had accomplished the above suggestions, proceed with this: Return to the area or venue of the tree planting activity. Clear the area of unwanted shrubs. Its best to use grass cutter if you have one. This should be accomplished three (3) days to one (1) week before the actual tree planting. Dig furrow six-inches (6") deep, stick a bamboo pole within the perimeter of the foxhole, which will serve as a marking and later on will have its purpose on the actual tree planting. The space between each foxhole should be 1-2 meter distance depending on the trees to be planted, but rule of thumbs always follows the two-meter (2m) distance. Make sure to remove the plastic bag before you plant the seedlings, and then place the plastic bag at the other end of a bamboo pole, to show that this portion is already planted a seedling so that others may know and will proceed to the next vacant foxhole. Make sure not to remove the soil on seedlings, and as much as possible, it should be on the same elevation, in that way of easily absorbing to foreign soil those seedlings. Put back the soil in the place of hole to elevate the surroundings of seedlings. If you can choose seedlings, get those with four feet high and up, to make sure that these seedlings can live and grow rather than the seedlings three (3) feet below. Make sure not to hold the seedlings on the stem while transporting from pick-up point to the foxhole, hold it in the plastic bag that hold the plant in places. If you dont have garden tools, improvise a shovel, coconut shell is an example, you can get these free from the market then let it use by the participants of tree planting.

 Impose the Bayanihan system when unloading the seedlings to the site, make a single pile then pass those seedlings one by one and as much as possible, divide the seedlings per row for every 10-20 foxhole to easily finish the tree planting activity. The hardest part of the tree planting is the post monitoring, you are definitely obliged to secure and monitor the area in which you have planted seedlings especially if this area is a remote one, unlike if this is just behind the water reservoir where you can leave it as is.

Following these steps can surely be a means of having a successful tree planting activity that will help our environment not only now but in the future generation.