What Tropical Depression?

Tropical Disturbance 05W brought heavy rain, wind, and rough seas to the Marianas this weekend, but it didn't stop 23 community volunteers from planting 250 coconuts on the beach along Beach Road.

The cost of this week's plantings: $0

That's right. Every single one of the 250 saplings was donated by the public and all of the labor was done by volunteers. Thanks goes out to MOVER, Eugenio Sablan, Jack Sablan, Abden Kaipat, Joe Hibus, and Jerry Facey for donating coconut saplings. My late father, Justice Villagomez, even donated some saplings (I just went to his house and collected them).

Of course we wouldn't have been able to plant the trees if our volunteers hadn't shown up during a rainstorm. In addition to the 14 volunteers provided by MOVER, we had help from Joe and Tina from DEQ, Rep. Cinta Kaipat and her brother Gus, Captain Carl, Juanita Fajando, Adam Sablan, and Emily Gironda.

Here are some pictures of trees going in the ground:

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Here's a picture of the group after having spent several hours digging holes in the rain:

Do you see those things on everyone's faces? Those things are called smiles.

It wasn't all smiles though. Somebody left a big pile of trash next to the 13 Fisherman Utt:



The combination of wind, rain, and dogs had scattered the garbage all over the park and the beach. So after planting our 250 coconut trees we had an impromptu beach clean up:

Next week we will be planting trees at the Lao Lao revegetation site. We will be working with CRM, DEQ, and Forestry.

We will meet next Sunday, July 16 at 8 AM at Santa Soledad Catholic Church in Kagman. From there we will drive up to the big blue water tank and then hike the rest of the way to the revegetation site.

If you are reading this, I hope you can make it!