Mbarara gives seedlings, cuts prices for infected trees

By Ebenezer Bifubyeka MBARARA LC 5 Production Sectoral Committee has removed the sh50 fee charged on tree seedlings. Charles Bujara, Mbarara District Forest Officer said this will encourage people to plant as many trees as possible, which will improve the environment. The district has replanted about 55,000 trees on 26.4 hectares of land in Bugamba and Rwoho forests reserves in Mbarara to replace around 287 acres of the two reserves that were destroyed by fire last year. He said people have already responded by planting many trees. Bujara said that two species of trees that comprise 40% of Bugamba and Rwoho forest reserves have died after being attacked by cupressus cinara aphids, age and drought. The affected species are pine (pinus patura) and cyprus (cupressus lusitanicia). The disease broke out in the two forest reserves around 1997 but the trees commenced dying late in 1999. "The age of these trees has affected them most. Pines and cyprus trees were planted in Bugamba Forest Reserve and Rwoho in 1970 and 1978 respectively. These species of trees are supposed to be harvested when they are between 20 to 25 years old. Bujara said that if these dying trees stay in the forests for the next one year, they will loose their timber value, which is a loss. "The 1999/2000 excessive drought that hit Mbarara, increased on the death rate of these trees due to much water stress," he said. He said that as a way to stop the pines and cyprus trees from getting extinct from Bugamba and Rwoho forest reserves, Mbarara forest department is raising a nursery with 60,000 seedlings. Bujara said that Rwoho forest reserve has 28,000 seedlings and Bugamba has about 32,000 seedlings. Bujara said that government has offered saw millers and pitsawyers machines to forest department, to quicken up the exercise of cutting down the dead trees that are scattered throughout the two forests. "We have reduced the price of a 30cm diameter (1 cubic meter)tree from sh28100 to 17,000," he said. These two forest reserves are found in Ruhaama and Rwampala counties in Mbarara district. Ends