Cleaning the Koblerville Substation

This morning Beautify CNMI extending their beautification efforts to Koblerville. Our partners from MOVER, the Church of Ladder Day Saints, DEQ, Rep. Cinta Kaipat's Office, Board of Parole, and Marianas Resource Conservation & Development Council participated in the first stage of the beautification project, which is to clean up and beautify the substation and old airstrip.

The above photo was taken a few days before our cleanup. You can see how the coconuts and the plumeria are being chocked out by the faster growing weedy species. The area is overgrown with tangantangan, the grass needs to be cut back, and there is a lot of litter that needs cleaning up.

The first thing we did was walk around the area and pick up all of the litter. After that we got to work cleaning up the overgrown areas. We used machetes and sickles to cut back the tangantangan choking out the plumeria trees.

After clearing the tangantangan, the guys came through with bushcutters and cleared the rest of area. After that, the rest of the volunteers bagged up all of the tree branches and cut grass for transport to the Saipan transfer station.

Rep. Cinta Kaipat commissioned two of these signs to put on either end of our project. The look pretty good, huh? People driving by kept honking at us after reading the signs. The could have been telling us to get out of the way, but I have a feeling that they were trying to tell us that they support us.

Rep. Kaipat also donated a catered lunch for all of the volunteers. We had red rice, fried chicken, sauteed beef, potato salad, and chicken kelaguen.

Here are some pictures of the volunteers enjoying their lunches:

And the obligatory group shot:

Some of the volunteers left after lunch (myself included). Other volunteers stayed as late as 3:30 PM cleaning up and clearing out the area. That takes dedication. We can't thank these volunteers enough for their service.