The U.S. National Park Service and the Division of Environmental Quality demonstrated on Saturday how easy it is to turn some yard waste into organic soil.
Park Rangers Nancy Kelchner and Alpha Ecalnea, together with DEQ coral management fellow Aric Bickel, held a composting workshop at American Memorial Park.
Kelchner used a food tray and bento boxes to demonstrate how food waste, leaves, grass clippings, twigs and bark chips can become useful when mixed with a small amount of soil.
“You can do it in the most convenient way you can,” Kelchner said while mixing the compost materials made of vegetable, fruit peelings and mulched lawn clippings.
The composting workshop, according to Bickel, was part of the Environment Awareness Month celebration.
In a Power Point presentation, Bickel explained why people should compost.
He said 90 percent of household and restaurant wastes are food scraps that can be composted.
Instead of losing it to the air or the landfill, the nutrients contained in these wastes can be kept in organic soil that vegetable and garden plants need.
Composting is also an easy way to reduce the volume of waste brought to the landfill.
For households, composting slows down the accumulation of trash bin contents.
Bickel describes compost material as “super dirt”: a healthy, energy-rich soil that contains similar nutrients found in many fertilizers as well as important micro nutrients.
Mulching
Mowing the lawn and trimming garden plants and trees happen more often than usual in the CNMI, Kelchner said.
The islands’ humidity level is also perfect: it can turn lawn clippings, leaves and other materials into “super dirt.”
Federal park rangers started mulching two years ago. With the use of a chipping machine, they grind the twigs and fallen branches of trees, gather leaves, pine needles and other garden waste to turn them into high-nutrient soil.
Mulching is one of the simplest ways of making the best use of garden waste. It is a protective layer of grass, leaves and bark chips spread on top of the soil.
It protects the soil from erosion, reduces compaction from heavy rains, saves the moisture needed by plants so it reduces the need to water the crops frequently. It also maintains soil temperature, prevents growth of weeds and keeps fruits and vegetables clean.
