“The Daily Herald” correspondent Althea Merkman received a palm tree as part of the agroforestry project.
ST. EUSTATIUS--ReforeStatia has plans to branch out into agroforestry, planting and growing more fruit trees and giving those out in encouraging agroforestry in agricultural areas on St. Eustatius.
The plan is to carry on with roadside planting, such as in Orange Bay, but with new, more aesthetically-pleasingly designed protective barriers that will protect the trees against the wind and wildlife, ReforeStatia’s manager Adam Mitchell.
Roadside planting prevents roadside run-off and provides shade. The programme wants to reintroduce trees that provide shade such as almond and mahogany trees, which were cut down in the past to allow the widening of streets. This will also add to ReforeStatia’s current beautification project. Interested persons can sponsor a tree or plant a memorial tree alongside Sandy Road.
ReforeStatia also wants to produce more fruit trees, concentrating on native fruit, but also producing mango trees even though these are not native to Statia. However, mango trees have been on the island for hundreds of years.
Mitchell said he has already spoken with a few of the farmers in Fair Play about planting mango trees along their sites, hoping there will be rows of fruit trees helping to break the wind and reducing erosion.
It is also the intention to improve and increase the reforestation areas, re-fencing the current sites with more resistant fences, especially in locations close to the sea. ReforeStatia will undertake a second round of planting to increase the density of trees.
The project will expand to the Airport Cliff and possibly also down into the gullies near the dumpsite to clean up that area and make it more stable to reduce the amount of dirt washing into the sea.
Mitchell said ReforeStatia has not yet started to plant in Zeelandia yet, “but we have to try to make the area more stable, because there’s a lot of erosion.” Therefore, the organisation wants to start replanting in that area as well to stabilise the cliff.
Also, a lot of gullies have developed near Corre Corre. “”It’s a lot easier to stop an area from going bad than it is to fix one that’s really bad,” Mitchell said.
The reforestation sites will be scientific monitored. Some very basic biodiversity surveys have already been conducted, but more in-depth research is deemed necessary, such as an insect-diversity survey and sediment monitoring along the reefs. The main goal of the project is to reduce the amount of sediment that is running off the island onto the reefs.
The project includes signage explaining what the reforesting project is about and why areas are fenced off.
ReforeStatia gave away fruit plants and other plants to members of the public.
