Washington officials upbeat about visit to the Commonwealth

The federal officials sent by President Bush to conduct an evaluation and assessment of potential marine conservation management areas in the Pacific region met with members of the Rotary Club of Saipan Tuesday at the Hyatt Regency.

James Connaughton, chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, said they are glad to be here on Saipan and meeting with government officials, the public and the rest of the community.

Connaughton is accompanied on this trip by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce John Sullivan and Assistant Secretary of the Interior Lyle Laverty.

Connaughton explained that President Bush wants to make sure that he would not make any move that would have enormous consequences.

“That’s why he sent us here to do the assessment and we will make the recommendations after talking to the people of the CNMI,” Connaughton said.

He said Saipan is just one of the areas the group will make such an assessment,

They were in American Samoa and Hawaii before coming to the CNMI.

Connaughton said they would evaluate if these potential marine conservation areas deserve national monument designation, protection or to improve conservation and management under available authorities.

Connaughton said they would complete their final report for submission to the President at the end of this month.

He said Bush wants to approve such recommendations before his term ends.

The U.S. officials met with lawmakers Monday on Capital Hill and some 350 community members later that night at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan.

Some of the potential areas the U.S. government is focusing on include equatorial islands and are federally owned, namely Johnston Atoll, Baker Holland Jarvis, Palmyra, Kingston Reef (called Pacific Remote Island), Prias, Rose Atoll in American, Samoa and the Marianas Islands chain.

“We are here to share ideas. We will be recommending to the President on what resources the federal government can use to make the final decision on whether such areas deserve recognition, protection or make necessary improvement,” Connaughton said.

He said they would gather scientific information on biology, geology, historical resources, and about the people and their culture.

“It is our first time to visit Saipan. It’s a beautiful place. This is the first time that we stayed for a longer time, four days, which is unusual for us. Usually it would take only a day for us to stay in a place. The President told us to make sure we talk to all the people here,” he said.

The group toured Rota and Tinian by helicopter on their first day in the CNMI last Sunday.