Remembering MT. STO TOMAS... Its been a year or so when I had my last steps on this mountain. Such a beautiful place to visit, from the smallest rock-creeping creatures and tree-clinging plants to the gigantic pine trees, they never fail to amaze me. I had a lot of memories in this place. Fun, a break away from the noisy city, a closer touch with nature, a sense of freedom, and a great panoramic view from the mountain top, the place is just awesome. We used to visit Sto Tomas to conduct our studies. We do scientific field works, we conducted a lot of researches in this place as it is one of the least polluted areas in our city and we could say less exploited. Our studies are mostly directed on the lichens, ferns, mosses and macroinvertebrates, usually the small organism living in different areas of the mountain. These small organism can be used as bioindicators of the present condition of the area, whether they are polluted or close to being one. I remember our instructor/ research promoter, Dr. Paulina Bawingan keeps on saying Sayang when she saw the area were no longer as rich with lichens as before. She said the last time they went there, the roadsides were so full lichens, almost painting the roadside white, green and other colors. Lichens are small plant-like organisms which are actually composed of fungi and algae, sometimes theyre just mistaken as bird poop or stains as they sometimes appear as white patches on rocks and trees. Lichens, mosses, small insects are good bioindicators as they can survive best in not so polluted places. Their presence and good number in a certain area means that area has still a good environmental condition. Anyway, so much with the Lichens. My visits to Mt. Sto Tomas, I could say that it awakened my environmental consciousness and awareness. I got to appreciate even the tiniest creature, that it has a role in the ecosystem, that each organism should be taken care of. Maam Pauline always told us not to destroy anything in our study site, that when we get samples from trees, we need to close the wound with something such as nail polish, and I did use mud. :) And also, we shouldnt get everything, we just get samples and leave something to grow multiply again as the lichens, for instance, can take a month for it to grow for just a millimeter. And what more if those tall and already mature trees were to be cut? It is just so disheartening that more than 700 trees were cut down recently at Sto Tomas by a project led by our very own so-called leader. In one tree alone there were hundreds of smaller organisms living in it and if the tree was destroyed, where would they go? Even if they claim to replant or replace the fallen trees, how long would it take for them to grow into full maturity? Pine trees are planted as seedlings, approximately 1.5 - 2 years old at the time of planting and that is already a very long time. And it would take them another 70 to 250 years to reach full maturity. So we will all just wait then ? ... SAYANG...
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 02:42:29 +0000
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