End of an Era

The Acacia Trees of the Higway

I've blogged about them in the past. They provide a nice shade on stretches of McArthur Highway from Bulacan, Pampanga and Tarlac. I've had a couple of incidents with them where a fruit fell on the roof of the van on a rainy night while I was doing around 45 mph. Imagine an Edamame bean pod and multiply it by 6 or 7 in size and so dry thus it's much harder! I would have jumped if I wasn't driving. Branches tend to break during typhoons and whole trees have been known to get uprooted by high winds and fall right on the road. Not to mention some fatal accidents with drivers hitting smack dab right on their trunks. These are a few of the disadvantages of the trees being so close to the road.

When we were growing up, no one paid attention to these trees. That's when McArthur was a two lane highway and there was plenty of shoulder space. Several years ago, someone in government had the bright idea of widening the highway into two lanes each way. I've heard of establishments getting into trouble with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) by cutting these trees without permission which is the only way to cut them because the DENR never grants any permit to ANYONE to cut these trees.

Here are a few of the pictures I took April of last year. On second thought, I think Donna took these pictures while I was driving.


As you can see, during the heat of the day, driving through the 'cave of trees' provides a respite from the burning heat of the sun. And I was told, there are over five thousand trees lining the highway through the three above mentioned Central Luzon provinces.

We've been hearing of talk of cutting these trees because of the potential hazard they may inflict to motorists or more road widening. With the advent of SUV's and one car for each middle class family, lo and behold, there arose a need for more road widening. Check out the Inquirer article written by Tonette Orejas.

Here's the billboard showing the government's endorsement on the cutting of the trees.


For more than a week now, cutting crews have been creating all kinds of traffic on the highway.


In the picture below, traffic was actually stopped because a tree was being cut up ahead and it's about to fall right on the road.


It's sad but how can anyone quantify the benefits these trees have provided to the environment all these years. Can anyone say GLOBAL WARMING?


There was a huge, and probably really old, tree right in front of the Sindalan branch of Banco de Oro (BDO - formerly Equitable PCI bank)...


..not anymore!




As a form of protest, a group of local artists painted in white around trees' trunks a human form on the stretch of highway between Telabastagan and Baliti. Cecil Yumul, a HAU professor and environmental advocate invited me to a benefit concert held last Friday. I tried to attend, got lost and couldn't find the venue so I ended up going home.


Now that I think about it, that was a pretty dangerous thing for me to do - taking above pictures while driving. Dang that's worse than texting and driving! Shiver...!