Adopt a Flame Tree

Two years ago Beautify CNMI had an adopt-a-flame tree program. Donate $25 and Beautify CNMI would plant a flame tree in your name.

That year we planted flame trees along the road fronting the substation in Koblerville, in front of Koblerville Elementary School, in Dandan near the airport, along beach road, and in Marpi. I'd have to dig through my files to figure out how many we planted, but it was several hundred. I remember a local lawyer donated something like $1000 to support our project.

Many of those trees are blooming this year, but unfortunately, a lot of the trees died from a combination of bushcutter damage, drought, and just bad luck. Many of the trees are doing very well, though, like I said.

Hafa Adai Magazine included a story about our adopt-a-flame tree program (see above) in this month's issue. This evening I got a phone call to let me know that two people had adopted trees. They are Mr. Nobuo Mizuno and Ms. Michiko Abe, both from Kamakura City in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.

We are going to plant two flame trees for them.

I talked to a farmer this evening about growing trees and there is a large company on island that has expressed interest in planting several hundred flame trees on Saipan (I've got a cool idea to combine planting pretty flame trees with erosion controls using native trees, but I'll write about that later), so you may see a resurgence in Beautify CNMI tree planting in the upcoming rainy season.

Stay tuned.