The Community Planting Day, which took place on Aug. 16, built on efforts in 2006 to help reduce the amount of soil washing into the bay and smothering the coral reefs.
The Division of Environmental Quality led efforts to coordinate the event with support from the CNMI Department of Land and Natural Resources, Beautify CNMI and the Coastal Resources Management Office.
“The overwhelming community support shown by the attendance at this planting event is a demonstration of our islands commitment to protecting Laolao Bay’s Coral Reefs,” said Kathleen Herrmann, project coordinator and NOAA coral reef management fellow based at DEQ.
About 100 puting seeds and 50 trees from the Division of Forestry, along with 500 coconuts from the community were planted in Badland areas of the re-vegetation site at Laolao, according to Beautify CNMI’s Angelo Villagomez.
Planting took place in Phase II and Phase III of a planting plan from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
The Laolao Revegetation Project aims to protect the Laolao Bay Watershed to reduce the amount of sediment accumulating on the adjacent coral reefs.
A watershed is an area of land that drains to a common point, in this case Laolao Bay.
Development and illegal clearing and burning in watersheds increases storm flow which leads to erosion of soils which can damage corals.
The increase of water flow can also lead to the increased water contaminants that can be toxic to living things.
