100 K seedlings produced yearly at San Roque watershed

SAN MANUEL, Pangasinan, Philippines — About 100,000 seedlings every year will be produced at the central forest nursery of the San Roque watershed to boost biodiversity. 

Ofelia Rovillos, community relations officer of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) at the San Roque watershed here, told The STAR recently that the forest nursery sits on a 7,000-square-meter area that will be the sanctuary of indigenous tree species like banaba, duhat, alibangbang, camantiles, eucalyptus, guyabano, mango, molave and jackfruit

The nursery was inaugurated on March 2. 

Some of the seedlings are grown in the nursery itself while others are contributed by the community, schools and other concerned groups, Rovillos said. 

When these are about 18 inches high, they can be transplanted in the watershed area, she added. 

She said during their information education campaigns, they encourage students and other people to gather and grow seedlings and turn these over to them for the nursery. 

They return the seedlings during tree planting activities within the watershed. 

There are now 29,000 seedlings available at the central forest nursery. 

The San Roque watershed covers 9,500 hectares located within the towns of Itogon in Benguet and San Manuel and San Nicolas in Pangasinan. 

There are four barangays within the watershed area; two in Benguet, while the other two are in San Felipe East in San Nicolas town and in San Roque in San Manuel. 

Tree planting activity is encouraged “so that people, especially the outsiders can see the watershed and appreciate nature at its best,” Rovillos said.