Beach Road’s bald spots get new grass

Some 80 graduating students of San Vicente Elementary School spent most of their morning yesterday doing volunteer work by digging and planting grass on barren parking areas along Beach Board.

The group began their work, which is part of the Division of Environmental Quality’s Beach Road Area Management Project or BeachRAMP, at the parking lot of the 13 Fishermen Memorial monument.

The grassing of the barren parking space is one tactic in a series of strategies to stem the rain-borne non-source pollution that flows into the Saipan lagoon.

The SVES students, who were accompanied by their teachers, dug holes on the ground, planted grass, and cordoned the area for about three months.

“We just want to do something for the environment,” said SVES student Korky Aguon.

SVES teacher Jaime Vergara said the students also planted more grass in plastic propagation planters, to be planted elsewhere at the onset of the rainy season.

“They will look for other barren areas along this road and regenerate the grasses,” he said.

The students received help from the Department of Public Works, which sent its crew and a water buffalo to water the newly transplanted grass. The USDA provided an auger to dig holes for the new grasses.

Tom Camacho of the CNMI Council on Developmental Disabilities represented the Friends of the Pathway in thanking the 6th graders and the supporting agencies for the day’s effort.

Meantime, during yesterday’s grass planting, DEQ recognized the Northern Marianas College-CREES for starting the Community Garden component of BeachRAMP.

NMC-CREES also received a $400 check from TREES to restart the 4-H Club at SVES.

Present in yesterday’s check presentation were TREES board vice-chair Ken Krame, members Patrick Calvo, Ivan Groom, MVA’s Martin Duenas, CREES’ Craig Smith and USDA’s Jocelyn Bamba.

Vergara said that SVES 6th graders began their retreat by doing a cleanup of their adopted beach, Lau-Lau Bay, on Monday.

SVES teachers accompanying the students were Jaime Tudela, Sherwin Mendiola, Rose Adams, Maria Teresa Camacho, David Cooper, and Vergara.

SVES indicated that the grass-planting activity would become a twice-a-year activity for the senior class of SVES.

BeachRAMP is a DEQ project jointly supported by the Department of Public Works, the Mayor’s Office, Friends of the Pathway, Team Responsible for the Environmental Enhancement of Saipan or TREES , and related agencies such as USDA, the NMC-CREES, Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Implementation of BeachRAMP is contracted to Northern Islands Co., with its president, Ivan Groom, as lead coordinator, and with primary technical assistance from Patrick Calvo of the Calvo Development Corp.