by Ronna Sweeney, KUAM NewsMonday, April 07, 2008 Subscribe to Ronna's newsfeed
Recently the U.S. Navy and the Government of Guam signed a cooperative agreement for the reforestation of the Masso Reservoir in Piti. According to Department of Agriculture director Paul Bassler, the reforestation plan has been developed as a mitigation project for the loss of coral reef habitat in Apra Harbor as a result of the Alpha and Bravo wharfs improvement projects by the federal government.Said Bassler, "We decided that we prefer that mitigation not go back into Apra Harbor because we knew there was a great deal of expansion coming. We thought it would be best if we could look outside that area for watersheds that might need erosion control projects." Per the cooperative agreement, the Department of Agriculture's Forestry and Soil Resources Division will be paid $235,000 to perform the scope of work. 12 acres of native plants and trees will be planted and a 30-acre security fence will surround the site."We came up with more of a holistic ecological approach, which was to do reforestation to limit erosion, which gets onto the coral and damages coral reef habitat," Bassler continued. He notes anytime the military damages the environment federal regulations require them to come up with a mitigation plan. And with significant military growth happening over the next few years he says more cooperative agreements are likely. Already in the works and on a much larger scale is a reforestation project for Cetti Bay. The Masso Reforestation Plan must be completed within three years, and Bassler says one man in particular deserves credit for the concept. "I just want to give credit to David Limtiaco, who used to be our forester and passed away unexpectedly last month. David worked very hard in negotiating this project. He is actually the designer of the reforestation plan at Masso and at Cetti Bay," he said. "We'll be working on some of David's visions for a lot of years to come and I think it's important we recognize his contribution."