DPWH bent on tree-cutting to widen road

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan —Despite strong opposition from environmental groups and local officials, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is still pursuing plans to cut down some 500 trees and complete a road widening project on the Manila North Road (MNR) in Pangasinan province, a DPWH official said here on Monday.

The trees continued to pose danger to motorists passing through the MNR that traverses five Pangasinan towns and a city, said Emmanuel Diaz, head of the DPWH Second District Engineering Office.

The condemned trees are what remained of the 1,829 trees marked for cutting along the

42-kilometer stretch of the MNR in the towns of Rosales, Villasis, Binalonan, Pozorrubio and Sison, and in Urdaneta City. They were spared when DPWH’s tree-cutting permit expired in February 2014.

Many of the trees were girdled. Girdling refers to the process of peeling off bark from a tree trunk to prevent nutrients from circulating inside the tree. Environmentalists describe this process as barbaric, but no local law prohibits it.

“There have been several accidents along the MNR because of these trees. That’s why we have asked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to give us a permit to remove those trees,” Diaz said.

Nongovernment organizations have challenged the DPWH application in an Urdaneta court, urging it to issue a temporary environmental protection order to save the remaining trees.

The court is still hearing the case. However, 181 trees were felled in September because these were either dead or dying from girdling.

To replace the felled trees, the DPWH planted 182,000 seedlings on 380 hectares of local watersheds.

“As of the last inspection of DENR and DPWH [personnel], the survival rate was high. The seedlings that died were immediately replaced. This will happen in the next three years to ensure their high survival rate,” Diaz said.

He said the remaining trees in MNR’s right of way were deteriorating and many of their branches were already dying and had to be removed. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon