Strategic initiative at La Mesa Watershed
Demonstrating its unwavering dedication to environmental stewardship and institutional sustainability, Far Eastern University (FEU) conducted a strategic two-day watershed initiative at the La Mesa Watershed last Oct. 27 and 29. The comprehensive effort brought together university administrators, faculty, union officers, and non-academic staff across various academic and administrative departments to advance long-term reforestation, ecological restoration, and watershed preservation.
The initiative kicked off on the morning of the first day, when the FEU delegation visited the newly assigned five-hectare land area allocated to the university by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The team engaged in intensive site preparation and clearing to ready the terrain for large-scale planting. Coinciding with the site preps, the group conducted the ninth-quarter growth and survival monitoring of the narra trees planted uphill in the previously assigned two-hectare land area during the university's June 2024 reforestation project.
This technical phase was spearheaded by faculty and staff from the Biology Department, alongside National Service Training Program facilitators, a representative from FEU Nicanor Reyes Medical Foundation, and representatives from civil society partner Hands On Manila. The scientific assessment of tree health reinforces FEU’s focus on long-term ecological monitoring over mere one-time planting events.
Building on the prepped site, a university-wide institutional tree planting activity was executed on the morning of the second day. Underscoring a broad-based commitment to institutional sustainability, the event mobilized academic and non-academic leaders, faculty members, FEU Employees Labor Union officers, and staff from across FEU's major organizational divisions, including Corporate Affairs, Academic Affairs, Academic Services, Academic Development, Finance Department, and Human Resources Department.
Working in synergy across the newly prepped five-hectare DENR site, participants planted Putat tree seedlings (Barringtonia racemosa)—an indigenous tree species ideally suited for watershed ecosystems and riparian environments. The choice of Putat trees and the continuous nine-quarter tracking of Narra trees deliver significant environmental benefits to Metro Manila's primary freshwater source. Putat trees thrive in wetland and watershed margins, stabilizing soil along water pathways, preventing erosion, and reducing siltation in the La Mesa Reservoir. The sustained monitoring model ensures high sapling survival rates, transforming planted areas into robust, self-sustaining native forest canopy rather than abandoned plots.
“By engaging university leadership, labor union representatives, faculty, and staff directly, FEU models corporate environmental governance and embeds climate action into its core institutional culture. Through continuous monitoring of established reforestation zones and active expansion into new DENR-assigned watershed land, FEU continues to turn its sustainability vision into concrete, measurable ecological impact,” said Atty. Rosalie J. de la Cruz- Cada, director of Community Relations.
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