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I. Municipalidad de Calera de Tango Municipal Arborist and City Trees Editorial Review Committee member Felipe Fuentes R. spoke
about the value of trees in the urban forest.
Arbor Day 2016 attendees received a free lily of the valley tree
(Crinodendron patagua).
have in our municipality. The event is a seedling that we wanted
to plant, and we will continue watering and fertilizing our Arbor
Day, committed to the vision of the proper care and manage-
ment of trees that we want to bequeath to future generations.
The New Chilean Society of Arboriculture
About five years ago, a group of Chilean professionals—ISA
members who are committed to the development of arbori-
culture in Chile—began to identify the need to create an orga-
nization capable of uniting individual efforts and promoting a
new culture of care for our urban trees. A meeting held at the
University of Talca in October 2014 with then- President-elect
of the ISA, de Gourét Litchfield, further ignited our enthusiasm
to establish a local society of Arboriculture, which eventually
materialized in August 2016: the official birth of the Sociedad
Chilena de Arboricultura (SOCHAR).
The main objective of SOCHAR is to promote arboriculture in
Chile as a scientific discipline and position the tree as a key
element of sustainability and quality of life in our cities and
towns. Its founding members come from sectors as diverse
as universities, municipalities, and the business sector. One
branch of fundamental action from the Society shall be in the
arena of municipal arboriculture, since municipalities play such
a large part in the care of our nation's trees along our streets
and in our squares and parks. There is much work ahead. With
great enthusiasm from our Society, we want to contribute to
building greener and more resilient cities, one tree at a time.
Native Tree Seedlings Distributed
at Chile's Arbor Day
Lily of the valley tree (Crinodendron patagua)
Soap bark tree (Quillaja saponaria)
Peumo or Chilean acorn (Cryptocarya alba)
Mayten tree (Maytenus boaria)
