REMINDER: Regular Monthly Meeting June 10th

Please be reminded that the monthly meeting is scheduled for this Thursday!

When: June 10th, Thursday
Time: 5:30pm
Location: Century Insurance Conference Room
JP Bldg, Beach Road

JP Center is the building where Saipan Tribune, Century Insurance (CIC), Century Travel are holding office. The CIC conference room is at the Ground floor. For directions, call at 234-0609 Ext 101 (Lina) or Ext 115 (Eli)

A VERY BIG THANK YOU to Tan Holdings for donating their conference room space for monthly meetings. PLEASE NOTE that all monthly meetings will be held at the CIC conference room until further notice.

Have a question or need more info - contact Laurie Peterka at 483-7499.

Everyone is welcome --- please feel free
to join us if you can.

REMINDER: Regular Monthly Meeting May 13th

Please be reminded that the monthly meeting is scheduled for this Thursday,

When: May 13th, Thursday
Time: 6:00pm
Location: Century Insurance Conference Room

JP Bldg, Beach Road

JP Center is the building where Saipan Tribune, Century Insurance (CIC), Century Travel are holding office. The CIC conference room is at the Ground floor. For directions, call at 234-0609 Ext 101 (Lina) or Ext 115 (Eli)

Corporate participation is available in many, many ways. For example, donating a meeting space for any of our committee meetings or our reular monthly meetings. Coalition members appreciate having quiet place to get together to work on projects.

A VERY BIG THANK YOU to Century Insurance for donating the conference for two Beautify CNMI! meetings this week!

Have a question or need more info - contact Laurie Peterka at 483-7499.

Everyone is welcome --- please feel free

to join us if you can.

World Resort Cleanup

Volunteers from World Resort cleaned up the road and beach between Quartermaster Road and World Resort on Saturday morning.

Thank you, World Resort!

Steve and Miwa Nguyen adopt a Flame Tree!

Steve and Miwa are moving to Texas next month. They adopted a Flame Tree and planted it on Beach Road. Their tree is the seventh Flame Tree planted in 2007. Their tree can be found at:

N 15' 11.557
E 145' 43.073

Thanks for adopting a tree, Steve and Miwa! We are sure going to miss you guys!

Holmes Busenkell adopts a tree!

Holmes Busenkell is the first non-human to adopt a Flame Tree. His is the sixth tree planted this year. It can be found at:

N 15' 11.520
E 145' 43.059

Thanks, Holmes!

(and thanks Katie and Joe for buying Holmes' tree)

Beautify CNMI in the News

The Variety wrote a very good article today about yesterday's planting of Flame Trees. They picked up on the damage being done to our trees by unskilled bushcutters:

Bush-cutters are flame trees’ worst enemies
By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

MARIANA Islands Nature Alliance executive director, Angelo Villagomez says unskilled bush-cutters are the flame trees’ worst new enemies, compared to typhoons and the fungus Phellinus noxious.

Recent typhoons have toppled flame trees along Beach Road and other areas on Saipan while Phellinus noxious is responsible for killing several flame trees along Airport Road and four other places on island.

But Villagomez yesterday said flame trees are also getting killed “not by nature but mismanagement or bad care.”

Villagomez, together with Rep.Cinta Kaipat, Covenant-Saipan, were among the Beautify CNMI! volunteers who planted flame trees along Beach Road yesterday morning in celebration of the first anniversary of the coalition’s tree planting activities.

Among the 2,000 native trees that Beautify CNMI! has planted since last year are 27 flame trees.

At least 83 people who have adopted flame tree seedlings will join the coalition in planting 150 more flame trees, Villagomez said.

Flame trees killed by improper trimming have recently become a concern of the Marianas Resource Conservation and Development Council, MINA and Beautify CNMI!
A tree trimmer training workshop was conducted recently.

During the tree planting yesterday morning, Villagomez showed how bush-cutters harm newly planted flame trees.

He pointed to an affected portion of a young flame tree that was hit by a bush-cutting equipment due to carelessness.

He said there is a need to educate the people performing bush-cutting jobs.
Newly planted flame tress must be protected from careless bush-cutters, he added.
Ken Kramer of the Marianas Resource Conservation and Development Council said they want to replace the flame trees that were killed by the fungus, but not in the areas where the soil is still infected with the fungus.

Eleven infected flame trees along Airport Road will be cut down.

At least 10 percent of the 600 flame trees planted on Saipan in 1978 have already been killed by this fungus which can be dormant for many years.

Brad Doerr, MINA’s organic gardener who grows flame trees, said the affected soil has to be sterilized before planting new flame trees which take 10 years before they can bear flowers.

Those who also participated in yesterday’s flame tree planting were Capt. Carl Brachear, Isa-CNMI’s Aya Matsumoto, Walt Goodridge, Julian Aguon, Joyie Lam and John Griffin, a visitor from Pennsylvania.

We also made the front page of the Saipan Tribune:

The caption reads:

MARKING A MILESTONE: Ken Kramer of the Marianas Resources Conservation & Development Council plants the first Adopt-a-Flame Tree sapling during the kickoff the Beautify CNMI tree planting for 2007 on Beach Road Tuesday morning. The planting was done in celebration of the first year anniversary of Beautify CNMI's tree planting drive. The hardworking volunteers and members of Beautify CNMI, MRC&D, Rep. Cinta Kaipat's Office, Isa CNMI, and Mariana Islands Nature Alliance planted five trees yesterday, replacing trees damaged by typhoons, bushcutter, or disease over the years.

Walt Goodridge also mentioned us in his weekly column today:

I suggest, therefore, that the necessary response in the face of change, and what the New Saipan ActionTank is committed to doing is to

1. Envision the change

2. Spark the change

3. Lead the change

4. Document the change

The strategy above, and the questions which follow can be used by anyone who wishes to participate in the New Saipan.

Envision the Change

What is your vision of what a new Saipan can look like? What’s your ideal scene? What can be improved?

Spark the Change

What can you do to be a catalyst for change? How can you get the ball rolling? How can you encourage or inspire others to bring about the change you envision?

Lead the Change

The best way to change the world is to be the change you’d like to see, and lead by example. What can you do to show others how it should be done?

Document the Change

In this time of distraction, it’s not enough to simply respond to change, it is important that your response be documented and exposed. This is vitally important, because without adequate documentation and coverage, people are left at the mercy of fear-based, passivity-inducing, daily "news" that neither empowers nor appropriately informs. How can we expose our efforts and accomplishments to the greatest number of people?

Evidence of Change

The strategy above is not unique to the ActionTank. There are examples and evidence of people already using it:

BeautifyCNMI!, concerned about the appearance of this island, took matters in their own hands and envisioned, sparked, led and continue to document the change on their website (www.beautifycnmi.com).

The 2007 Tree Planting Season is on!

Community volunteers and adopt-a-tree patrons (from left to right): Brad Doerr of MINA, Angelo Villagomez, Sami Birmingham-Babauta, Beautify CNMI summer intern, Walt Goodridge, Rep. Cinta Kaipat, Aya Matsumoto of ISA CNMI, Joyie Lam, Captain Carl Brachear, John Griffin, Ken Kramer of Marianas RC&D, and Julian Aguon.

This morning Beautify CNMI partners from Marianas Resources Conservation & Development Council, Rep. Cinta Kaipat's Office, Isa CNMI, and Mariana Islands Nature Alliance helped kick off the Beautify CNMI tree plantings for 2007!

We planted 5 trees, replacing trees that have been removed because of typhoon damage, bushcutter damage, or disease over the years.

The planting occured on the one year anniversary of Beautify CNMI's first tree planting. Exactly one year ago we planted four Flame Trees on Beach Road. Some of those Flame Trees are over 10 feet tall today.

Is the tree tall or are the people short?: Angelo Villagomez, Sami Birmingham-Babauta, and Steve Nguyen. This tree was planted on June 19, 2006. It is only one year old.

That planting kicked off a series of tree plantings that resulted in the planting of over 2000 native trees.

The Flame Trees planted this morning are a part of the Beautify CNMI Adopt-a-Flame Tree program. Anyone can adopt a Flame Tree. The cost is $20 and the adoptee can plant the tree with Beautify CNMI or at their home. Adoptees will recieve a certifcate of adoption that has the GPS coordinates of their tree. Their tree will also be featured on the Beautify CNMI website.

GPS All-stars: John Griffin and Brad Doerr take the GPS coordinates of a Flame Tree.
If you would like to adopt a tree, please contact Angelo Villagomez or use the DONATE NOW button to make a donation. The cost is $20 per tree.

Julian Aguon and John Griffin adopt a tree!

Julian Aguon and John Griffin are both visiting Saipan this week. Julian is from Guam and John is from Pennsylvania. When they heard about our tree planting this week, they both decided to adopt a tree. We only had five trees at our kickoff event, so they decided to plant it together.

Later in the rainy season we will plant another tree for them.

They also decided to call their tree JJ. JJ can be found at:

N 15' 11.851
E 145' 43.109

Thanks, Julian!

Thanks, John!

Joyie Lam and Rika Matsumoto adopt a tree!

Joyie Lam came to this morning's tree planting after reading about it on one of the many Saipan blogs. She decided to adopt a tree.

Her tree can be found at:

N 15' 11.856
E 145' 48.107

Joyie, who is entering her third year at Pepperdine University, planted this tree for her and her best friend, Rika, who is currently attending college in Japan. Rika is the daughter of Aya, who has also adopted a Flame Tree.

Aya Matsumoto adopts a tree!

Aya Matsumoto of ISA CNMI adopted a flame tree and planted it on Beach Road. It can be found at:

N 15' 11.780
E 145' 43.109

Thanks, Aya!

By the way, we made Aya dig her own hole:

Captain Carl Brachear adopts a tree!

Captain Carl planted his tree on Beach Road. It is located at:

N 15' 11.776
E 145' 43.100

Thanks, Carl!

Ken Kramer adopts a tree!

Ken Kramer was the first person to plant an adopt-a-Flame Tree! His tree is located at:

N 15' 11.747
E 145' 43.105

Thanks, Ken!

Tree Planting: One Year Later

On June 19, 2006, Beautify CNMI and our partners planted four Flame Trees on Beach Road. Over the course of the next several months, we planted over 2000 trees.

Tomorrow is the on year anniversary of that day, so we are going to plant four more Flame Trees on Beach Road. The ceremony will take place at 10 AM near the 13 Fishermen Memorial.

Hope to see you there!