It's history in the making-- Guam's first Tree City USA Campus was recently launched at Luis P. Untalan Middle School in Barrigada.

On Arbor Day, which has been celebrated across the nation for the last 15 decades, the school completed the first phase of its Tree City -- the Native Tree Garden Project. Arbor Day is observed on the last Friday of April.

It's apart of the Arbor Day Foundation.

PJ San Nicolas works for a Hawaii-based non-profit called Smart Trees Pacific, which is contracted to do urban and community forestry work with the Guam Department of Agriculture and

Soil Resources Division. He is the program coordinator for the urban and community forestry program and recently led the project at the Home of the Wildcats, which consisted of planting 45 native trees of eight different species.

"It started with Benny Chargualaf, a teacher at Luis P. Untalan Middle School," he said. "He requested for a native tree garden and from there we worked together to put together a plan and it turned into the native tree garden that we have today."

Smart Trees Pacific focuses on urban and community forestry that serves Hawaii and the pacific islands. Urban and community forestry projects were designed to educate the public and focus on planting trees on urban public lands.

Benny Chargualaf, a science teacher at UMS, goals are in line with the mission of the program.

"Our big vision was not only to start a native garden but also start an outdoor classroom," he said. "So this is going to transform, you're going to see benches that are sustainable that'll are gonna be built with bamboo, wood, and things of the such so that we can also incorporate classes outdoors."

This is actually the second established garden at UMS. The first consist of okra, eggplant, tomato, and two varieties of both basil and spinach. The second garden is native trees, which originate here on the island or are brought naturally either by birds or ocean currents.

With the expansion of this project and shooting to bring value by perpetuating sustainability and our culture, Chargualaf looks forward to the project getting bigger.

"This garden is going to grow with our school community and it's something that I as a teacher, I was very proud of, giving back to the school. The school has given me more than you could ever ask for," he said.

A memorandum of understanding was established to protect the garden, with ensuring student safety as a top priority.

The project has been in the works since October 2021 and it's only growing larger, according to San Nicolas.

"I think what's great about this project is that it was a request from a middle school teacher for a small courtyard but the whole science department got involved as well as the principal," he said. "Upon, her request, we're actually setting up to have native and also naturalized trees around the whole school campus."

San Nicolas looks forward to standing up signs of QR codes all around the campus which will contain basic information such as basic characteristics, places you can find them, cultural and medicinal uses, as well as links to video playlists where more detailed tree information will be available.

Students will do school projects, research these trees, and present them to their peers. The chosen groups will provide videos for these three signs.

The Native Tree Garden Project is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s State and Private Forestry program and the Guam Bureau of Statistics and Plans.

For more information, call the forestry and soil resource division at 671-300-7975/7977, email forestry@doag.guam.gov and follow them on Facebook and Instagram @doag.forestry.