BAGUIO—The management of SM City Baguio has planted about 60,000 tree seedlings in various parts of the city over the past four years to help the local government and concerned government agencies preserve and protect the environment.
The mall management reported that 24,035 trees were planted in the Busol watershed; 30,200 were planted in the Philippine Military Academy; 2,157 in the Forbes Park forest reservation; 2,000 in Dontogan Elementary School; 907 in Salud Mitra barangay; 500 each in Quezon Elementary School and Sto. Tomas Elementary School.
SM hired a company to maintain and protect the newly planted trees over a three-year period and to replace the trees that died.
Busol watershed has a total land area of 336 hectares of which 112 hectares fall in the jurisdiction of Baguio. The remaining 224 hectares belong to the capital town of La Trinidad, Benguet and supply over 40 percent of potable water of residents of the city.
The mall management committed to planting 50,000 saplings in the city-owned property in Sto. Tomas School, with the initial batch of 10,000 seedlings earmarked for the mass tree planting by city officials and employees on September 16. The remaining 40,000 seedlings will be planted in other city-owned properties.
SM vowed to plant at least 500,000 trees in 10 years, which is more than the number required by the environment department for its expansion project.
The DENR required the mall chain to plant 6,000 trees to replace the pine and alnus trees destroyed by the expansion.
SM is making the seedlings available to other interested groups.