Micronesia
THE commonwealth has a healthy bird population,
but the help of the community is still needed to maintain it and help with
reforestration efforts.
Shelly Kremer, a wildlife biologist at the CNMI
Division of Fish and Wildlife, was yesterday’s guest speaker at the Rotary Club
of Saipan meeting at the Hyatt.
She said Saipan, Tinian and Rota have more bird
species compared to Guam and this helps in the reforestration process.
Kremer said birds help in reforestration as
seeds that pass through the digestive tracts of birds have more of a chance
to grow into trees.
Showing photos of houses and yards on island
that were bare from lack of trees, Kremer said birds will not stay where there
are no trees.
“Our birds are resilient, but they need our
help,” Kremer said.
She is urging members of the community to do
their landscaping with the wildlife in mind, making backyards and the general
environment friendly for the birds.
Kremer said the CNMI has a lot of endemic bird
species, or those not found anywhere else in the world: Rota White Eye, Mariana
Crow, Tinian Monarch, Rufous Fantail, Golden White Eye, White-throated Ground
Dove, Micronesia Megapode, Mariana Swiftlet, Saipan Bridled White-eye,
Nightingale Reed Warbler and the Mariana Moorhen.
Kremer said among the birds that were introduced
and are not native to the islands are the Black Drongo, Orange-Checked Waxbill,
Island Collared Dove, and the Eurasian Tree Sparrow.
She urged the Rotarians to test their own
backyards to check how bird-friendly they are. She said one will know how bird
friendly one’s backyard is by the kind of birds that are found there.
“We are urging the community to plant more trees
and keep the islands bird-friendly,” Kremer said.
In a Power Point presentation, she enumerated
the functions and benefits of trees including water conservation, livelihood,
food, beauty, medicines, shelter, oxygen, run-off reduction, carbon storage,
noise barriers, flood prevention, paper production, wildlife, soil production,
heat reduction, culture, water and air cleaning, fuel and erosion reduction.
Trees that are good for birds are gaogao or
tiger claw, ahgoa or false elder, sumak, agatelang, lulujut, alum, aphoghating,
nunu or banyan, papaya, guava, nanaso and manzanita.
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