THANKS for last week’s article on Obyan, but please note the following corrections.
First, the impacts to the beach that are listed are not from pedestrian traffic. The beach is not impacted by visitors per se, but by their driving cars onto the beach. So no more worries on that end.
Secondly, please note that the “Walk It, Don’t Drive It” beach campaign was not a sole CRMO and MINA venture. The campaign was started several years ago, well before MINA came into existence. The campaign is an interagency collaboration with many contributors. We have Larry Lee to thank, who was working at NMC at that time, for developing the catch phrase with NMC-CREES. We also have The “Turtle Man” Joe Ruak from DLNR-DFW; Erica Cochrane and John Starmer of CRMO; Officer JD Diaz of DPS, past Commissioners Ed Camacho, Sandy Tudela, and Williams; the manamko’, Lino Olopai and Melody Actouka’s NMC Service Learning Students to thank for making many many school presentations about the reasons we should not drive on the beach.
Joe Ruak is absolutely amazing to watch in the classroom; without him, I would have never learned how to give a presentation to a group of kids without being petrified.
As always, DLNR Forestry was, and continues to be, very much involved in the campaign. They provided saplings for the tree planting at Wing Beach, with the then operational TREES organization (I’m not sure if they are still an NGO), who together with NRCS, and POWER provided volunteers. They will also be working with CRMO, MINA, NRCS and Beautify CNMI! for a future planting event at Obyan prior to rainy season. And of course we have DEQ to thank for arranging the on going class room and Environmental Expo presentations, DLNR Parks and Rec for ingeniously thinking of using recycled CUC power poles to block off accesses at Obyan.
We also have the Tanapag/San Roque precinct to thank for supporting the Wing Beach pilot project in the first place.
And oh yeah, Roxanne Diaz, a teacher at Marianas High School, who was so jazzed with the campaign that she had her class make brochures to hand out to beachgoers. The list goes on and on, and I no doubt missed some contributors.
Thanks to all.

KATHY YUKNAVAGE
Coastal Resources
Management Office