National Wildlife Refuge Association Friends Workshop

Hafa Adai and Tiirow from Saipan!

January was a busy month for Friends of the Mariana Monument Chairman Ignacio V. Cabrera and Secretary Laurie Peterka who were invited to attend the National Wildlife Refuge Association Friends workshop in Kaui’I. The invitation was in conjunction with having been awarded a Mentoring Grant from the same organization.

The Friends worked together with the National Wildlife Refuge manager in Guam to make the application for the grant in mid-December 2017.  The purpose of the mentoring grant is to help the Friends become more familiar with the way the National Wildlife Refuge and Friends relationships work and get both prepared for a future memorandum of understanding. The MOU will solidify the relationship and allow goals to be set for community outreach and special projects.

Visiting the closed area of the refuge up above Kilauea Point where the lighthouse is located. This is a very diverse group of folks who volunteer at refuges in Alaska, Hawaii and the CNMI. Some are also NWR employees. All are passionate about wildlife and connecting people with their refuge. — with Ilana Nimz, Ann Bell, Nicole Galase, Desiree Sorenson-Groves, Jennifer Waipa, Lamar Gore, Helen Fields, Joanna Webb, Crystal Leonetti, Heather Tonneson, Caroline Garrett Brouwer, Ignacio Cabrera and Chelsea McKinney and others at Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge.

The purpose of the workshop was to bring all the Friends groups in the Pacific together to work on a mutual agenda established at the 2016 meeting. This is only the second time the group has met. The workshop lasted five full days and included Friends board members giving presentations about their respective locations, hearing from the National Wildlife Refuge staff, facilitator-led working sessions to help Friends groups re-center, and field trips to three different Kaua’I Refuge complexes.

“We learned from the other Friends groups that we have similar issues,” said Cabrera. He added, “I was grateful for the Hawaiian chants they used as part of the process and the connection that the Hawaiian people have with their history and culture of protecting the ocean and the resources for our future generations. I would like to see more of this in the CNMI.”

“The days were 12-hours long and intense,” commented Peterka. “There were several ‘Ah ha!” moments for us on the third day when we did this half day exercise that helps drill down to finding the core reasons why our Friends group is so important for the world,” she added.

The Friends of the Mariana Trench now carry on for the rest of 2018 meeting with mentors appointed by the NWRA board to re-align itself and come up with plans that will help the community be more aware of everything about the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument.