Trees in the farm, Part 5

Photos below as of September 26, 2015, my last visit to the farm in Bugallon, Pangasinan. This is the main road going there. Passable by tricycles, non-4WD but higher clearance vehicles.

Peeping at the pathway going to the treehouse, between small mahogany trees and coconut trees.

My treehouse, surrounded by mostly mahogany trees on the left, back and right. Then the rice field of Nong Endring, our caretaker. On the left side are some acacia auri young trees.

Going a bit up, not passable to any vehicle because the creek has widened and deepened, after years of heavy flash flood every year. Trek by foot or bicycle.

Y foot path. To the left is going to the mango farm, to the right is going to the irrigation canal, more mahogany trees, and the upland.

The farm is being sold by the owners. Prospective buyers ask how many trees are there, wow. Difficult to answer, should be a few tens of thousands, big and small. Some parts have become new natural forest, the new trees just sprout like grasses.

Some parts of the farm are not conducive to any crops, not even trees could grow big. These are the rocky parts with some mineral deposits, mostly silica.

The irrigation canal. The trees here have grown rather more evenly.

Once the trees have established themselves, grasses and  cogons can no longer survive. No sunlight for them, no substantial soil nutrients for them as these have been gobbled by the elaborate roots of mahogany trees.

With zero mango harvest the past four years, revenues from selling lumber from some big trees have helped us pay for the monthly salary + SSS contributions of our two caretakers, Nong Endring  and his son Danny.
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See also: 
Trees in the Farm, Part 3, February 11, 2013
Natural Regeneration of Trees, February 21, 2013
Tree Planting vs. Tree Growing, June 08, 2014 
Wasteful DENR Reforestations, October 22, 2014 
Denuded Uplands, Western Pangasinan, February 17, 2015
Trees in the farm, Part 4, June 23, 2015

Trees in the Farm, Part 4

An update from a blog post I made last August 21, 2013. Photos below I took last Sunday, June 21, 2015. Here, on the left side of my treehouse. Avocado, mango, mahogany, other trees.

Mostly mahogany trees, and mostly growing  and  regenerating on their own. 

They need clearing, removal of other trees that are too close to each other, usually within one foot apart. Ideal for good growth is about two meters or around seven feet apart.

I originally posted these last August 21, 2013:

We started planting mahogany, acacia auri, eucalyptus and other trees in the farm in 1992. Only about 300 seedlings or less. Then we started producing our own seedlings in 1993 or 94 and planted more in the mid 90s.  By early to mid-200s, we stopped planting as the trees we planted earlier were already producing their own seeds and seedlings. This tall acacia auri is different because it has a straight trunk. It has no choice as it was surrounded by other big trees, mahogany and various native species. Plus tall bamboos, just beside a creek.

Mahongany trees near my treehouse.

Many of these young trees simply grew and regenerated on their own.

Mahogany trees near an irrigation canal.

View of the trees near the creek from a hill within the farm.

One of about five surviving agoho or pine trees, on a rocky area beside the creek.

It is refreshing to see the trees that we planted one or two decades ago are now mature.
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See also: 
Trees in the Farm, part 2, September 06, 2012
Trees in the Farm, Part 3, February 11, 2013
Natural Regeneration of Trees, February 21, 2013
Around My Treehouse, May 02, 2013 
Tree Planting vs. Tree Growing, June 08, 2014 
Wasteful DENR Reforestations, October 22, 2014 
Denuded Uplands, Western Pangasinan, February 17, 2015

Tree Harvesting to Start Today

Today, mature trees in the farm, mostly mahogany, will be harvested. The buyer is Mr. Arlin Bulon, with three agents Bong, Alex and Aida. They have secured the necessary permits from DENR CENRO as well as the Barangay, everything is legal. Harvesting should take more than one week with daily operations of 3 chain saws and several men working.

My treehouse below, with many big trees on both sides, some of which we planted since 1992, the first time I visited the farm and liked it. Photos here taken last January 01, 2014, my last visit there.

Most of the big trees were planted from 1993-96. There were a few mahogany trees that were big already when I went there in 1992.

By late 2000s, we practically stopped planting trees as the older and bigger trees have started producing their own seeds and began natural regeneration of trees around the farm.

The naturally regenerating ones were soooo many. The challenge here is to cut and remove many of these new seedlings as they grow too close to each other, less than one foot distance. Trees cannot grow big and tall at this spacing, they will lack sunlight, lack minerals under the soil, lack space, too much competition among them.

Plus it can get dark easily when sunlight can hardly penetrate the soil. And mosquitoes tend to multiply fast in dark, highly forested areas.

After this harvest of big and mature trees, the younger ones will have more space, more sunlight, so they can grow bigger and taller too. A "perpetual forest" is possible under selective cutting method.

We shall have lots of charcoal/uling from tree branches and treetops to be produced. Lots of slabs too. Some I will use to repair my treehouse, some to be used by our caretakers, Nong Endring and Danny Paragas, in the repair of their houses too.

Some we will sell -- charcoal, slabs, and roots, for furniture or sculpture. If interested, drop a comment here, or email me.
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See also:
Trees in the Farm, Part 3, February 11, 2013
Natural Regeneration of Trees, February 21, 2013
Around My Treehouse, May 02, 2013
Trees in the farm, Part 4, August 21, 2013
Trees for Harvesting, December 05, 2013.

Trees for Harvesting

The farm in Pangasinan that I am helping to manage is owned by the Millora Enterprises (Millent). After many years of continued spending, the firm wants to get some revenues. I started going there in 1992 and started planting a few hundred tree seedlings that year, assisted by the farm caretaker, Nong Endring Paragas.

Millent will sell the bigger trees for lumber . Prospective buyers of lumber will get the necessary permits from the DENR in Dagupan City, shoulder the cost of cutting and harvesting the marketable trees, at least 6 inches diameter at breast height (dbh). There are 400+ trees in the farm that have attained this minimum size, mostly mahogany trees. 

As of this writing, one prospective buyer has already made an inventory of those trees, how many have 6 inches dbh, 8 inches dbh, up to 14 inches dbh. If other details are worked out between the buyer and Millent, and after the necessary permits from the DENR and the barangay are secured, harvesting of the bigger trees should start, maybe next month.

For every big tree there that is at least 6 inches dbh, there should be at least 10 more younger and smaller trees nearby that are waiting to be given the chance to get more sunlight, more minerals from the soil, more space, to grow bigger and taller too.

Trees just within 15 meters from my treehouse, the side near the creek.

One prospective buyer came to the farm a few weeks ago. Even if they have not initiated formal talks with the officers of Millent, they started marking the big trees with white paint for possible harvesting. That is a wrong approach. They should have talked to the officers of Millent first before making such move.

My Treehouse, August 2013

Hmmm, I forgot to take the latest photo of my treehouse but nonetheless, about the same look as four months ago,

We built it around March 2004 or 2005, so around 8-9 years old already, additional repairs are needed. Especially that it is perched on a big and live mahogany tree, so as the tree grows bigger and taller, the house is disjointed somehow.

See here, new skin or tree growth is slowly "swallowing" the horizontal support wood holding the second floor of the house. This wood is 3 x 6 inches and this part will soon be goobled up by the mahogany tree's new skin.

The other horizontal support wood on the other side.

Flooring of the second floor. The slatted bamboo near the trunk have been broken by the rising tree. Notice the 2 x x inches wood on the left, almost totally swallowed by the new tree skin.

One diagonal post for the support beam of the roof has been swallowed already, at least its first 2-3 inches.

Those wood that the tree cannot "swallow", are pushed outwards.See the curved thrush (?) of the roof on the left. So the left side diagonal post is pushed further to the left, resulting in...

detachment or delinking of this post holding another roof thrush (?). This results in less stable roof against strong wind.

The tree can develop new leaves and branches inside the house, like this one, taken last year. A bit funny to see these new leaves inside the house.

See also:
My Treehouse, May 2012, July 17, 2012
Around My Treehouse, May 02, 2013

Trees in the Farm, Pangasinan

We started planting in the farm sometime in 1992, wow that was 20 years ago. Then we stopped planting after about six or seven years, I think. The older trees have been spreading their seeds that the young trees, tens of thousands of them, have grown like grasses. We have to pull or cut them out, otherwise our area would become so dark with so many trees, inviting plenty of mosquitoes and other pests.

Below, the trees near my treehouse, sometime in early 2009. These are mostly mahogany trees.

Trees as of December 2010, just a few meters from my treehouse.

As of February 2011. These are near our irrigation canal and water impounding structure.

Also as of February 2011. The road going to the public (no longer forested) land.

As of April 2011. In the above photos, taken from my old camera phone. Lower photos below taken from our digicam.

More photos from the digicam, also in April 2011.

Below, as of April 2012.