As an island, Guam’s natural resources such as land and water are limited, but work is being done by the Guam Local Working Group to ensure that farmers, ranchers and landowners come to the table to help address resource issues that affect them.
“The goal really is getting our stakeholders involved. The soil and water conservation stakeholders, partners, even the farmers and the ranchers, we are getting them together, that way we can identify Guam’s top-priority resource concerns and how to address them,” Erica Pangelinan, Guam Local Working Group event coordinator, told The Guam Daily Post.
Every year, by federal law, the working group is convened to identify the priority concerns and work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service to program funding based on Guam’s needs. This year, the working group meeting was held Friday at the Hilton Guam Resort and Spa in Tumon.
“Last year we identified soil health as a major priority for Guam and conservation as well. So, the districts have developed and stood (up) programs that will help farmers and agricultural producers and landowners to look at their soil and test their soil with the University of Guam and then get on conservation plans with USDA and RCS. We’ve highlighted soil as our priority and RCS has committed funding so that way it will be available for farmers to get on conservation plans to enhance their soil health,” Pangelinan said.
This year, a different approach was taken with the Guam Local Working Group.
“We have recruited Ray Ledgerwood, who is well versed in facilitating local working groups nationwide. He’s helped us design the agenda so we can start fresh, if you will, and get our partners and stakeholders – our farmers, and ranchers - in the room organically to put it in their hands to let us know what the priority resources are today, despite what’s been looked at in the past,” Pangelinan said.
One of the main goals is to gather diverse input to address Guam’s unique needs, she said.
“I am seeing a lot of beginning farmers and a lot of our farmers that have been around here in Guam. So, we are getting a really good group from those just starting out and those who have been around,” Pangelinan said. “We have farmers and landowners from the south, famers and landowners from the north, and also partners from different areas and organizations coming together to provide this input and collectively agree.”
Soil, for instance, varies by region, she added.
"Across Guam, soil health is an issue. In the northern district, the issue with soil is because it’s primarily limestone up there. We don’t have a lot of it. So, building that organic matter is really critical, especially for the farmers. Whereas, down in the south, soils are very much abundant. However, because of erosion and the topography of the volcanic type of terrain, the soil lacks nutrients because (of) eroding due to human activity, development is a big one."
Off-roading and agricultural practices such as tiling are also factors to soil erosion in the south, Pangelinan said.
“It’s unfortunate, but a lot of sediment runoff is happening down in the south, which then, in turn, we are losing the soil quality,” she said.
The Guam Local Working Group meeting on Friday aimed at determining what to focus on in the agenda.
"A big thing that we hear from our farmers is the issue of feral swine, the wild pigs are destroying the farmlands, they’re destroying our soil in our wildlife habitats," said Pangelinan.
At the forefront, the Guam Local Working Group has tried to address the issue by asking, “How do we deal with the feral swine populations?”
“Although we are doing it, we need more and, hopefully, from this meeting we can engage with all of our partners, even with the farmers,” she said.
The Guam Local Working Group convenes annually, bringing together the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and various other USDA agencies involved in conservation and environmental protection, the Guam Soil and Water Conservation District – North and South Districts, Department of Agriculture, Guam Environmental Protection Agency and local farmers, landowners and ranchers.
"Although this is an annual event, we determined the need to have this more frequently throughout the year. So, that way, as we develop our initiatives, we want to see the progress and how that’s working and how we need to adjust or if the priorities that we determine are still relevant," said Pangelinan.
