Employee-volunteers take part in the tree planting activity that will give rise to the first-ever arboretum or living showcase of trees in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

Leading wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc., with the assistance of the Tollways Management Corporation (TMC), recently embarked on another tree-planting effort, this time to give rise to the first-ever arboretum or living showcase of trees in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

Employee-volunteers, including some 30 members of the company’s Read-to-be-Smart, a project that promotes learning among public school kids, had help from about 100 volunteers from TMC which operates and maintains the North Luzon Expressway. Represented were employees based from as far as Balintawak to the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx).

Once completed, the arboretum, which occupies one hectare in Brgy. Pastolan, Mt. Sta. Rita, will house about 1,000 species of trees. The area is in addition to the 200 hectares being adopted by Smart for its reforestation efforts in Subic.

Smart Public Affairs Community Partnerships Manager Nova Concepcion said the number of trees planted in one activity usually range from 2,000 to 5,000. But for this milestone event, trees planted were selected specifically for the arboretum.

Among those planted were Kamagong, Banuyo, Molave and the country’s ironwood Mangkono, which takes four days to cut using an ordinary ax.

SBMA Ecology Center Community Development Officer Edmond De Jesus was excited when he first learned that such rare trees will be planted in their area.

“I felt privileged because we will have trees that we haven’t had before.” He added that the living museum will benefit not only their students but also the researchers and travelers who usually flock the area. “They no longer need to go deep into the forest to see these kinds of trees,” he pointed out.

Ryan Vita, Program Supervisor of TREES4LIFE: Tubong Pinoy Movement, a program of Earth Day Network Philippines, Inc., instructed the volunteers on the best way to plant the saplings, which his group grows in their own nursery in Canlubang, Laguna.