Editorials
Media
Part of Forestry Leaves
- Title
- Editorials
- Language
- English
- Year
- 1957
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- WOODMAN! SPARE THAT TREE This cartoon which appeared in the Manila Times several months ago was intended to convey to the laymen that unless the logging of our timber reserves is regulated, we must watch out for the consequences. Accordingly, there are 15,875,700 hectares of forest areas in the Philippines containing 1,082,000,000 cubic meters of standing timber valued at P27,860,610,000.00. However, only about 3.5 million hectares are fairly heavily timbered for profitable large scale logging. The Bureau of Forestry is presently enforcing sustained yield management thru selective logging to forestry licensees principally in the dipterocarp forests. It is high time that the people who have invested their money for the exploitation of these forests exercise care in logging so that sufficient young ~ I trees are left undamaged, otherwise, wood supply, the very basis of their business, will be exhausted. And it is not only they who will suffer but also the people who own this common patrimony. - M RR The Staff of the FORESTRY LEAVES Organ of the Student Body and Alumni of the College of Forestry College, Laguna Associate Editors: JESSIE AMDIAN LEONARDO ANGELES EDILBERTO CAJUCOM VINH XUAN DINH EDMUNDO G. DIZON W-ILFREDO POLLISCO DAM NGUYEN HOANG DINY TRUNG TRAN VICENTE VERACION Board of Management: ENRIQUITO DE GUZMAN ANGELO MORDENO NICASIO MULATO ROMEO SALVADOR ARSENIO TONGACAN NOVEMBER, 1957 JUANITO LAMANILAO Editor-in-Chief MODESTO T. TOBIAS Business Manager PROF. JOSE B •. BLANDO Adyiser OSCAR B. CADELII'tA Managing Editor Contributint Editors: BERNARDO C. MALOOS BENJAMIN D. ALMONTE MARTIN R. REYES TEOFILO A. SANTOS FRANCISCO T AMOLANG Circulation Department: TOMAS REYES RODOLFO QtJ:;."!'OLES BIENVENIDO GIRON LoRENZO ESTRADA Page 77 IT'S NOW UP TO THE BUREAU OF FORESTRY The Congress and the Chief Executive have given the long-sought fund needed to implement selective logging more effectively by approving a Pl0.3 million Bond and Loan Issue Fund for reforestation of which P3 million is for natural, and P7.3 million is for artificial reforestation. With the P3 million bond fund for expenditures in 3 years, forest management work will be accelerated. The objective to be accomplished is: intensification of scientific management of commercial forest areas, particularly those under operating concessions in order to assure faster replenishment of the timber supplies and to promote natural regeneration of cut-over lands through the institution of acceptable logging practices, which otherwise, will have to be planted at tremendous expense; improvement of stocking· of old logged-over areas and the protection thereof, all with the aim of keeping these lands in productive condition as sources of timber and other forest products for future generations. The goal for 3 years is 132,0000 hectares and for this fiscal year, 29,000 hectares. To carry out this objective, 45 timber management stations are now being organized whose main functions win be tree marking and application of logging techniques to save young trees from injuries and destruction; residual inventories; planting unavoidably cleared landings and cableways with forest seedlings; and improvement of stocking of understocked, previously logged-over areas in permanent forests by transplanting forest seedlings, killing of defective trees, etc. The residual stands and forest planned for operations under license will be more adequately protected. Now that the most pressing need of the Bureau of Forestry has been met, it is greatly hoped that it will accomplish its goal. Forest management is its main work which heretofore had not been adequately financed thus the little work accomplished along this line. Timber production is its responsibility. It can now do much to the proper discharge of that responsibility with the funds available. - MRR FORESTRY DAY THOUGHTS Forestry Day comes again to mark another milestone in the history of our college. As a milestone, it should serve to make us pause and reflect over the significance oi forestry and the role the graduates of our College play in the economic life of our country. Ours has been and always will be a task of gigantic proportions, a continuous and thankless task: to keep a vigilant eye on an important source of our national wealth; to make it produce richly and in abundance; to see to it that it is wisely exploited; and at the same time to preserve it as a permanent asset for future generations. The forest is and has always been essential to the economic stability and social development of a country. Its preservation and development means national prosperity and welfare. It also serves to protect a great deal of the wildlife of the nation for our national parks. In this present age when efforts are exerted in finding ways and means to lengthen man's life span, wildlife provides necessary health and recreational opportunities and national parks stimulate our sense of beauty and help enrich our lives. It furnishes avenues for a better utilization of our leisµre. Forestry Day also serves to point to us that the Government has been sadly negligent in providing adequate funds for giving the Bureau's operating expenses. Its appropriation is out of proportion to its imp0rtance as a money producing instrumentality (Continued on paje 81) Page 78 FORESTRY LEAVES