The Friends of the Mariana Trench, a local organization dedicated to the conservation, preservation, and protection of flora, fauna, and geological features of the ocean, welcome the opportunity to comment on the draft management plan for the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur islands, our ocean, and our culture are the tangible things we pass on to future generations,\u201d said Rep. Sheila Babauta (D-Saipan), who is the FOM chairwoman. \u201cCommunity engagement and local input will improve our stewardship of the Mariana Trench, and our organization is committed to working with our partners in local and federal government to ensure our voices are heard.\u201d<\/p>\n
The draft management plan and environmental assessment for the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument was made available for public comment on Feb. 24, 2021. The 90-day comment period ends on May 25, 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are the long-time stewards and owners of the Mariana Trench,\u201d said Friends vice chair Franco Santos. \u201cWe commend the work of the agency staff at CNMI Department of Land and Natural Resources, NOAA Fisheries, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for giving the community the opportunity to have a voice in the management of our natural resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Friends of the Mariana Trench plan to provide expert commentary on the draft management plan and work with community members who wish to learn about and comment on the plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also plan to help community members submit their own comments, so that their individual voices are heard as a part of this process,\u201d added Babauta.<\/p>\n
For more information, https:\/\/www.friendsmarianatrench.org\/. (PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Friends of the Mariana Trench, a local organization dedicated to the conservation, preservation, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":330355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-339305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}